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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15052591/00001
Material Information
- Title:
- The Physical Vulnerability of the Florida Keys Climate Change and the Florida Keys- Fact Sheet 3
- Creator:
- Ove Hoegh-Guldberg
- Publication Date:
- 2010
- Language:
- English
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- The Florida Keys is the area most at risk from climate change in the United States, the southernmost part of a State which is itself under significant threat.
The low elevation of the Keys aggravates the risk. The main hazard is from sea‐level rise, expected to threaten at least 38% of the current land area by 2100 – in the worst case almost the whole area. Storm surges from hurricanes and coastal erosion aggravate the threat.
The Florida Keys, significantly, form a “super‐ecosystem”, with its collection of islands complete with key deer and other threatened species, pine forests, hammocks, mangrove and seagrass communities, and coral reefs. It is useful to adopt this view, recognizing the vital role of the reefs while giving the threat of sea‐level rise its proper focus.
Elevated sea temperature is the primary threat to the coral, aggravated by ocean acidification. These factors interact with and reinforce traditional stressors including land‐based pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing practices, invading species, and disease.
The coral cover of the reefs declined by half between 1996 and 2008. Commercial fishery landings in Monroe County, including spiny lobsters, pink shrimp, and reef fish such as snappers and groupers, showed comparable declines.
Most of the water supply is through aquifers from the immediate north. It is already affected by saltwater intrusion, which would be aggravated as the sea level rises.
Carrying capacity (further discussed in Fact Sheet 4) is a key issue for Monroe County. Partly as a result of its residential permit control system, the population is in decline. After rising steadily until the early nineties, the population in the Florida Keys (where practically all Monroe County residents live) peaked at approximately 82,200 in 1993. By 2008 it had fallen to 73,300, as shown on page 2.
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
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