Data from: Warming accelerates mangrove expansion and surface elevation gain in a subtropical wetland

Climatic warming can change how coastal wetland plants grow, thus altering
their capacity to build land and keep pace with rising seas. As freeze
events decline with climate change, mangroves expand their range to higher
latitudes and displace salt marsh vegetation. Warmer air temperatures will
likely alter above‐ and below‐ground plant dynamics as this dramatic
coastal wetland biome shift proceeds, which in turn may result in changes
in ecosystem function such as sediment building. We used a large scale in
situ warming experiment in a subtropical wetland to increase both marsh
and mangrove ecosystem air temperatures. We assessed how 2 years of
continuous warming influenced above‐ and below‐ground plant growth and
surface elevation relative to sea level. We found that chronic warming
doubled plant height and accelerated the expansion of mangrove into salt
marsh vegetation, as indicated by a sixfold greater increase in mangrove
cover in warmed plots compared to ambient temperature plots and a
corresponding loss in salt marsh cover. Surface elevation gain, a measure
of soil‐building capacity, increased due to warming over a 2‐year period
and these changes in surface elevation were driven by increased mangrove
root production in warmed plots. Synthesis. Our findings suggest that, in
some coastal wetlands, warming can facilitate plant community changes from
marsh to mangrove, with corresponding increases in growth that help
coastal wetlands to keep pace with sea‐level rise.