Scholarly record

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE COASTAL ZONE

E. Doukakis

Abstract

The Earth’s weather and climate are the result of the redistribution of heat. The major source of heat to the surface of the Earth is the sun, principally through incoming visible radiation most of which is absorbed by the Earth’s surface. The ocean redistributes this radiation and the atmosphere with the excess radiated back into space as longer wavelength, infrared radiation. Clouds and other gases, primarily water vapour and carbon dioxide, absorb the infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface and remit their own heat at much lower temperatures. This traps the Earth’s radiation and makes the Earth much warmer than it would be otherwise. Over time, energy absorbed near the equator spreads to the colder regions of the globe, carried by winds in the atmosphere and by the currents in the ocean. Compared to the atmosphere, the ocean is much denser and has a much greater ability to store heat. The ocean also moves much more slowly than the atmosphere. Thus, the ocean and the atmosphere interact on different time scales. The ocean moderates seasonal and longer variations by storing and transporting, via ocean currents, large amounts of heat around the globe, eventually resulting in changing weather patterns. The ocean also plays an important role in climate change. Long-term impacts of climate change in coastal areas, such as sea level rise or storm surges, could result in the increased erosion of shores and associated habitat, increased salinity of estuaries and freshwater aquifers, altered tidal ranges in rivers and bays, changes in sediment and nutrient transport, and increased coastal flooding. The purpose of this document is to address relevant topics of the sea level rise driven by the changing climate and consider how climate changes could impact valuable coastal areas.

Publication details

Back to publication list