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 plot...