USGS Study - 80% Or More Of San Fransico Bay Salt Marshes Gone Within Next 100 Years
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More than 80 percent of critical salt marsh habitat around San Francisco Bay will disappear in 100 years due to rising sea levels, according to a detailed, decade-long survey of the area by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The marshes are the bay's natural buffer against rising seas. Many of the Bay Area's cities and important services, including highways, airports and power lines, lie only a few inches to a few feet above sea level. As long as a marsh accumulates enough sediment to keep pace with encroaching sea levels, it can maintain its elevation, protecting nearby homes and infrastructure.
Marshes can also retreat, but in the central and South Bay, development surrounds all existing marshes, leaving them nowhere to go.
For its report, the USGS surveyed roughly 8 square miles (20 square kilometers) of the remaining tidal marshes in San Francisco Bay, an estuary that contains about 80 percent of California's wetlands. If current trends continue, only 12 percent of this region will survive as marsh until 2100, the USGS found. The rest will turn into mudflats, or drown.
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http://www.livescience.com/26084-climate-change-to-claim-san-francisco-marshes.html
