Climate change is transforming ecosystems and affecting ecosystem goods and services. Along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the southeastern United States, the frequency and intensity of extreme freeze events greatly influence whether coastal wetlands are dominated by freeze‐sensitive woody plants (mangrove forests) or freeze‐tolerant grass‐like plants (salt marshes). In response to warming winters, mangroves have been expanding and displacing salt marshes at varying degrees of severity in parts of north Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. As winter warming accelerates, mangrove range expansion is expected to increasingly modify wetland ecosystem structure and function. Because there are differences in the ecological and societal benefits that salt marshes and mangroves provide, coastal environmental managers are challenged to anticipate the effects of mangrove expansion on critical wetland ecosystem services, including those related to carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, storm protection, erosion reduction, water purification, fisheries support, and recreation. Mangrove range expansion may also affect wetland stability in the face of extreme climatic events and rising sea levels. Here, we review the current understanding of the effects of mangrove range expansion and displacement of salt marshes on wetland ecosystem services in the southeastern United States. We also identify critical knowledge gaps and emerging research needs regarding the ecological and societal implications of salt marsh displacement by expanding mangrove forests. One consistent theme throughout our review is that there are ecological trade‐offs for consideration by coastal managers. Mangrove expansion and marsh displacement can produce beneficial changes in some ecosystem services, while simultaneously producing detrimental changes in other services. Thus, there can be local‐scale differences in perceptions of the impacts of mangrove expansion into salt marshes. For very specific local reasons, some individuals may see mangrove expansion as a positive change to be embraced, while others may see mangrove expansion as a negative change to be constrained.

The impacts of mangrove range expansion on wetland ecosystem services in the southeastern United States: Current understanding, knowledge gaps, and emerging research needs

Coastal salt marshes are distributed widely across the globe and are considered essential habitat for many fish and crustacean species. Yet, the literature on fishery support by salt marshes has largely been based on a few geographically distinct model systems, and as a result, inadequately captures the hierarchical nature of salt marsh pattern, process, and variation across space and time. A better understanding of geographic variation and drivers of commonalities and differences across salt marsh systems is essential to informing future management practices. Here, we address the key drivers of geographic variation in salt marshes: hydroperiod, seascape configuration, geomorphology, climatic region, sediment supply and riverine input, salinity, vegetation composition, and human activities. Future efforts to manage, conserve, and restore these habitats will require consideration of how environmental drivers within marshes affect the overall structure and subsequent function for fisheries species. We propose a future research agenda that provides both the consistent collection and reporting of sources of variation in small-scale studies and collaborative networks running parallel studies across large scales and geographically distinct locations to provide analogous information for data poor locations. These comparisons are needed to identify and prioritize restoration or conservation efforts, identify sources of variation among regions, and best manage fisheries and food resources across the globe.

Geographic Variation in Salt Marsh Structure and Function for Nekton: a Guide to Finding Commonality Across Multiple Scales

Woody encroachment is occurring in many marsh-mangrove ecotones across the globe, with multiple drivers contributing to an increase in mangrove cover. As a result, marsh plant species are often displaced, resulting in a striking regime shift from grass and forb-dominated habitats to taller, woody vegetation. Our goal was to quantify the bottom-up effects of mangrove woody encroachment into coastal wetlands on associated plant, nekton, and bird assemblages. In 2012, we established several large (>20 ha) survey areas at tidal wetland sites with or without black mangroves (Avicennia germinans) on the Texas (USA) coast in the Gulf of Mexico, an area highly susceptible to mangrove encroachment. From 2012 to 2015, we recorded vascular plant cover and diversity, sampled nekton at the water-vegetation interface using seine nets, and compared wintering shorebird and wader use among sites using the citizen science database eBird. Marsh plant species richness was 50% lower at sites with mangroves, and some species, such as Distichlis spicata, were absent from these sites entirely. The relative abundance and species richness of nektonic fish and invertebrates were similar between sites, but certain species (e.g., bay anchovies Anchoa mitchilli, grass shrimp Palaemonetes spp.) were more common at sites without mangroves. Citizen science data indicated that shorebird and wader species richness was 20% lower at sites with mangroves. Shorebird assemblages were markedly different between site types; six shorebird and three wader species were only detected in marsh sites. Our results indicate that coastal wetlands dominated by mangroves support different plant and animal assemblages than marsh-dominated areas. These results were largely consistent with the results of a previous manipulative experiment in the same area, lending considerable confidence to the conclusion that mangroves influence the associated plant and animal communities. Therefore, as woody encroachment continues and mangrove cover gradually increases, this change may lead to complex bottom-up effects on a range of ecosystem processes and services.

Effects of mangrove encroachment on tidal wetland plant, nekton, and bird communities in the Western Gulf of Mexico

Mangroves and salt marshes are considered important habitats for a diversity of fishery and other species One of the key presumed values of these systems is their role in fuelling aquatic food webs that support many fisheries species The mangrove-salt marsh ecotone along the NE Atlantic coast of Florida provides a natural experiment to examine the relative importance of mangrove and marsh production in supporting aquatic food webs Representative food web components comprising key functional groups were sampled across the ecotone to test the prediction that species or functional groups that rely on the dominant wetland producers should show large differences in carbon stable isotope values across sites that span C4-dominated Spartina marshes in the north to C3-dominated mangrove wetlands in the south Source contributions were estimated for fishery species (blue crabs, penaeid shrimp), wetland specialists (cyprinodontiformes fishes, grass shrimp, fiddler crabs), zoobenthivores (pinfish, spot), phytodetritivores (mullet) and planktivores (menhaden, anchovy, silversides) The range of wetland macrophyte source contributions had minima < 5% for most groups at most sites, despite the shift from C3- to C4-dominated wetlands, suggesting that Spartina and mangroves contributed minimally to the trophic support of these groups Spatial correlations between sources and individual consumer species that spanned the ecotone showed the strongest correlations with micro-algal sources (microphytobenthos/phytoplankton), weak correlations with a ‘wetland’ source reflecting the transition from Spartina to mangroves across the ecotone, and no correlation with either mangrove or Spartina sources These findings suggest a limited role of mangrove or Spartina production in supporting the aquatic consumers examined

Stable Isotopes Suggest Limited Role of Wetland Macrophyte Production Supporting Aquatic Food Webs Across a Mangrove-Salt Marsh Ecotone

Climate change driven sea level rise and mangrove expansion are rapidly altering coastal systems in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Such substantial and wide-spread change will likely have substantial effects on the flow of energy through the food webs in these systems. Using stable isotopes and habitat cover maps, we built energetic landscapes (E-scapes) for three nekton species to determine how the landscape’s ability to produce energy changes with changing habitat cover over a 5-year period. Between 2015 and 2020, 25% (367.26 ha) of marsh habitat converted into mangrove habitat and 10% (144.93 ha) of marsh habitat transitioned into water. We observed an overall decrease in the energetic benefit to all consumers with increasing mangrove cover, due to the fact mangrove detritus is not used as a food source by consumers in our system. Edge habitat had a positive relationship with overall energetic production, likely due to the increase in available area for benthic algal production. The relationship between edge habitat and water habitat suggests that while these areas may initially increase in their ability to support consumer species, continued sea level rise will lead to reductions in the landscape’s ability to produce energy for consumers as land is converted to water. As these coastal areas experience rapid habitat cover changes, the reduction in energetic quality of habitats could lead to a reduction in the ability of these systems to support existing consumer species.

Foundation Species Shift Alters the Energetic Landscape of Marsh Nekton

Food web response to foundation species change in a coastal ecosystem

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Food web response to foundation species change in a coastal ecosystem