Predicted response of coastal wetlands to climate changes: a Western Australian model

Abstract

A review of the Western Australian coast systems shows a range of models of how coastal wetlands could respond to climate change because it spans climates from tropical humid, tropical arid, to near-temperate humid, faces various oceans that drive coastal processes and maintain coastal landforms and habitats, and adjoins a range of hinterland types that develop variable coastal habitats, runoff and rainfall. It thus provides a plethora of settings that latitudinally will respond differentially to any changes in air temperatures, evaporation, rainfall patterns, freshwater influx, wind regimes and storm activity, and derivative responses such as changes in sediment supply, maintenance of coastal forms, coastal groundwater and biota. A review and examples of coastal wetland response to climate changes are provided from Walpole–Nornalup Inlet Estuary, Leschenault Inlet Estuary, the Point Becher area and King Sound.