Socio-Ecological Solutions to the Salinization of Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula: An Interdisciplinary Assessment of Land and Water Resources and Community Climate ReadinessAs sea level continues to rise, potentially at an accelerated rate coastal areas will face many new challenges associated with a rapidly changing environment. The most obvious and daunting of these challenges is the flooding of millions of homes and billions of dollars in infrastructure in coastal cities like Miami and New Orleans. However, such catastrophic effects are often projected to be around a century away, and even then there is great uncertainty. On the other hand, rural areas face much more imminent threats from much smaller rises in sea level. These rural areas are typically closely tied to the natural environment through industries such as agriculture, forestry, fishing, and tourism. As such, the effects of salinization resulting from small rises in sea level are expected to have potentially dramatic impacts on rural communities. Our project seeks to simultaneously investigate how the natural environment will change, and how the people living, working, and visiting these areas will respond, recognizing that humans and the environment are inherently linked in rural communities.
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What's Happening Now |
The Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula is already experiencing the effects of climate change as brackish or salty water migrates inland during periodic coastal storms, during times of drought, and under the gradual influence of sea level rise. Extensive ditching and drainage across the region also contribute to the inland penetration of brackish water. Timber and crop production, ecosystem processes and services, and nature-based tourism are all affected by salinization, or increased saltwater content, of freshwater resources across the region. Salinization of the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula represents a major facet of climate change in North Carolina.
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Our Plan |
With this in mind, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the NCSU College of Natural Resources set out to answer key questions about climate change and its effects on the people and resources of coastal North Carolina. How will the gradual salinization of these freshwater-dependent landscapes affect the people and natural resources of the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula in the decades preceding permanent inundation by sea level rise? Will communities in the region prepare for and adapt to this gradual salinization? If so, what will those adaptations be and how can the communities build their capacity to respond? Can lessons learned here in North Carolina help communities elsewhere prepare for and adapt to climate change? To answer these questions, the team will work to understand how salinization affects both natural resources and the people who live, work, and recreate in the Albemarle-Pamlico region. Working with stakeholders, decision-makers, and collaborators in the region, the NCSU team expects to help outline locally adaptable solutions to problems associated with salinization. The team will rely on a range of methods to assess and model salinization-related impacts to water resources, wildlife, forest product markets, and tourism in the region. Cutting edge geospatial and visualization tools will help researchers and community members work together to understand salinization and its effects, and test adaptation strategies in a virtual space. In addition to faculty experts, the NCSU team will include a group of doctoral students learning advanced skills needed to address complex, interdisciplinary challenges related to natural resources in North Carolina and elsewhere. This work represents a major effort by the College of Natural Resources to provide information on and solutions to critical land and water issues.
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