5.12 Climate Change
groundwater table, soil moisture, or streamfow, and indirectly by degrading water quality or reducing the water available for irrigation.
Te National Climate Assessment (NCA) was developed through a collaborative efort between numerous federal and state agencies and climate science experts and summa- rizes current and future impacts of climate change on the United States (Melillo et al. 2014) . Te report indicates the Southeast region is exceptionally vulnerable to sea level rise, extreme heat events, hurricanes, and decreased water availability associated with population growth, though the efects will not occur evenly across the landscape. Damages to infra- structure by sea level rise, heavy downpours, and extreme heat are projected to increase with continued climate change. Climate change also directly afects biodiversity; for example, when environmental condi- tions change too quickly for species to adapt to them or migrate to areas with more suitable conditions if such areas still exist (Bellard et al. 2012) . Te following section provides additional information about three climate change topics expected to impact wildlife: sea level rise, temperature changes, and precipitation changes. 5.12.1 Sea Level Rise—Anticipated Impacts In simple terms, sea level is the average height of the ocean surface and it is typically mea- sured along a coastline in relation to fxed land positions. Sea level is infuenced by several factors, such as ice melt from glaciers and ice masses, and thermal expansion of sea water, which are caused by increased air and water temperatures. Given these infuences, sea level naturally fuctuates to some degree on a daily basis because water inputs, ambient temperatures, evaporation, and lunar cycles will vary not only between locations but also on a global scale (NCDCM 2012) . Tide gauge stations located along the coast are used to measure local changes in water ele- vations and are able to measure changes in land mass that occur from subsidence, shifts, and tectonic plate movements. Tese types of ocean and land elevation measurements have been collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) over time in several locations along North Carolina’s coast (Figure 5.41). Te resulting data are used to derive relative sea level elevations along North Carolina’s coast. References are provided at the end of this chapter for additional information on sea level rise and datasets that are publically available from federal and state agencies and research organizations (NOAA 2013) .
According to vulnerability assessments (Boruf et al. 2005; Sallenger et al. 2012) , North Carolina’s coastline is one of the areas considered to have signifcant vulnerability to sea level rise.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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