Threat of wetlands disappearing?

Islands have shrunk and wetlands are disappearing. Scientists worry climate change, sea level risings and humans are putting South Atlantic tidelands in danger from North Carolina’s Outer Banks to the edge of North Florida. What happens next? Parts of the South Atlantic coast are sinking, floods increasing, marsh grasses thinning, trees dying, and water is covering research equipment in the grasses. Changes in South Atlantic salt marshes are not as obvious as what’s occurring on the Gulf Coast, where thousands of acres of marine wetlands have eroded and entire islands disappeared. But scientists in the Carolinas and Georgia are paying close attention tp the causes causing the sea to expand and polar ice to melt. Anywhere from 14%-to-34% of the 1M existing salt marshes acres from the South Atlantic-to-North Florida could be lost by 2060 if seas continue to rise as expected, according to NOAA. If salt marshes disappear, multi-billion dollar tourism, recreational and commercial fishing industries would all suffer. Hurricanes/tropical weather threats to the coastal South, could have more devastating impacts if salt marsh grasses aren’t there to slow surges before water washes onto the mainland. Wildlife people are used to seeing in marshes could leave or die. This is Rising Tides, Sinking Future, a special report from McClatchy. These stories were made possible with support from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.  (Source: Sun Herald 10/24/21) Global warming could kill marine ecosystems in NC, SC, GA, FL | Biloxi Sun Herald