The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released its Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA). The report evaluates the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and urbanization on four Gulf Coast ecosystems and 11 species that depend on them.
Ecosystems evaluated by the report include mangrove, oyster reef, tidal emergent marsh, and barrier islands. The species are roseate spoonbill, blue crab, clapper rail, mottled duck, spotted seatrout, eastern oyster, American oystercatcher, red drum, black skimmer, Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, and Wilson’s plover.
The GCVA was initiated by four Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) that cover the Gulf of Mexico: Gulf Coast Prairie, Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks, South Atlantic, and Peninsular Florida.
The LCCs are partnerships among federal agencies, states, tribes, non-governmental organizations, universities and other entities that collaboratively address broad-scale conservation issues in a defined geographic area.
To learn more about the GCVA visit: http://gulfcoastprairielcc.org/science/science-projects/gulf-coast-vulnerability-assessment/.
source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service