Climate Change Impacts On Wetlands—Regional Comparisons Across the U.S.

Climate change predictions show that over the next 70 years air temperature and rainfall will change.  The amounts of change will vary across the U.S. in both north to south directions as well as east to west.  We evaluated the impacts of these changes on wetlands that were primarily precipitation driven.  Climate changes model predictions of both temperature and rainfall were input into a hydrologic model that predicted water table levels.  Changes to duration of wetland hydrology were then estimated from the model predictions.  At this point, wetlands in the southeastern U.S. will experience a small drying, but will remain jurisdictional wetlands.  Future analyses will be conducted along gradients from NC to Texas, and from FL to MI to evaluate regional variations on climate change impacts.