Abstract: This article briefly describes the origins of the 2011 Adaptation Action Areas (AAA legislation.5We identify every local government that has amended its comprehensive plan to include AAA language and characterize it as either aspirational or operational - depending on whether spatially explicit boundaries have been drawn. We also seek to determine the dominant 'theme' behind the AAA language, based on its focus on the built environment, natural resources and social equity, and whether the AAA is a regulatory instrument, or is focused on implementing projects. We conclude that despite nearly 10 years of existence, the promise of AAA's as a policy planning tool has yet to be fully realized. We further conclude that given its implicit goal of priority setting, there is insufficient attention paid to social equity as a basis for creating and implementing AAA's. We caution that this analysis is based on readily available public information, and AAA planning is occurring that has yet to reach fruition. In addition, because the statute is likely not preemptive,7spatially explicit sub-jurisdictional adaptation planning may be occurring outside of the AAA framework.

Abstract: Beside the physical impacts of climate change, society's perceptions of climate change and its reactions at different stages of decision-making levels have become critical issues. This study presents the perspective of tourists who have previously visited Florida, in a hypothetical scenario of changed climatic conditions. It is proposed that existing social representations about climate change, and therefore individuals' attitudes, views, and beliefs about this phenomenon, need to be taken into account when examining tourists' stated responses to climate change and subsequent potential shifts in tourism demand. The existence of a relationship between tourists' visitation intentions toward a destination impacted by climate change and the social representations they hold with respect to climate change itself offers an alternative way to look at tourists' stated responses. This study concludes that predicting shifts in tourism demand based on tourist visitation intentions requires caution when dealing with climate change.

Abstract: Inter-annual to decadal sea level variations from tide gauge records in the coastal zones of the Norwegian and Siberian Seas are examined for the period 1950-2010 using a combination of hydrographic observations, wind data, and theory. We identify two large areas of highly coherent sea level variability: one that includes the Norwegian, Barents, and Kara Seas, and another one that includes the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas. We provide evidence of a new contribution to the sea level variability along the Norwegian coast associated with the poleward propagation of sea level fluctuations along the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic. When this propagating signal is combined with the local wind we are able to explain over 70% of the variance along the Norwegian coast. The steric component explains ~61% of the sea level (corrected for the inverse barometer) variability along the Norwegian coast. The high coherency between the sea level along the Norwegian coast and that in the Barents and Kara Seas suggests that part of the Norwegian signal propagates further north into these regions. We introduce an atmospheric vorcity index that explains much of the sea level variability in the Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi Seas with correlations ranging from 0.73 to 0.81. In the East Siberian Sea, we identify a sea level increase of ~22 cm between 2000 and 2003, which is partly explained by the vorticity index, and a decline of ~15 cm after 2003, which we relate to the strengthening of the Beaufort Gyre.

Abstract: Climate change is a significant global risk that is predicted to be particularly devastating to coastal communities. Climate change adaptation and mitigation have been hindered by many factors, including psychological barriers, ineffective outreach and communication, and knowledge gaps. This qualitative study compares an expert model of climate change risks to county administrators' mental models of climate change and related coastal environmental hazards in Crystal River, Florida, USA. There were 24 common nodes in the expert and the combined non-expert models, mainly related to hurricanes, property damage, and economic concerns. Seven nodes mentioned by non-experts fit within, but were not a part of, the expert model, primarily related to ecological concerns about water quality. The findings suggest that effective climate outreach and communication could focus on compatible parts of the models and incorporate local concerns to find less controversial ways to discuss climate-related hazards.

Abstract: Hurricanes are recurring high-energy disturbances in coastal regions that change community structure and function of mangrove wetlands. However, most of the studies assessing hurricane impacts on mangroves have focused on negative effects without considering the positive influence of hurricane-induced sediment deposition and associated nutrient fertilization on mangrove productivity and resilience. Here, we quantified how Hurricane Irma influenced soil nutrient pools, vertical accretion, and plant phosphorus (P) uptake after its passage across the Florida Coastal Everglades in September 2017. Vertical accretion from Irma's deposits was 6.7 to 14.4 times greater than the long-term (100 y) annual accretion rate (0.27 +/- 0.04 cm y(-1)). Storm deposits extended up to 10-km inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Total P (TP) inputs were highest at the mouth of estuaries, with P concentration double that of underlying surface (top 10 cm) soils (0.19 +/- 0.02 mg cm(-3)). This P deposition contributed 49 to 98% to the soil nutrient pool. As a result, all mangrove species showed a significant increase in litter foliar TP and soil porewater inorganic P concentrations in early 2018, 3 mo after Irma's impact, thus underscoring the interspecies differences in nutrient uptake. Mean TP loading rates were five times greater in southwestern (94 +/- 13 kg ha(-1) d(-1)) mangrove-dominated estuaries compared to the southeastern region, highlighting the positive role of hurricanes as a natural fertilization mechanism influencing forest productivity. P-rich, mineral sediments deposited by hurricanes create legacies that facilitate rapid forest recovery, stimulation of peat soil development, and resilience to sea-level rise.

Abstract: Despite overall global declines, mangroves are expanding into and within many subtropical wetlands, leading to heterogeneous cover of marsh-mangrove coastal vegetation communities near the poleward edge of mangroves' ranges. Coastal wetlands are globally important carbon sinks, yet the effects of shifts in mangrove cover on organic-carbon (OC) storage remains uncertain. We experimentally maintained black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) or marsh vegetation in patches (n = 1,120, 3 x 3 m) along a gradient in mangrove cover (0-100%) within coastal wetland plots (n = 10, 24 x 42 m) and measured changes in OC stocks and fluxes. Within patches, above and belowground biomass (OC) was 1,630% and 61% greater for mangroves than for recolonized marshes, and soil OC was 30% greater beneath mangrove than marsh vegetation. At the plot scale, above and belowground biomass increased linearly with mangrove cover but soil OC was highly variable and unrelated to mangrove cover. Root ingrowth was not different in mangrove or marsh patches, nor did it change with mangrove cover. After 11 months, surface OC accretion was negatively related to plot-scale mangrove cover following a high-wrack deposition period. However, after 22 months, accretion was 54% higher in mangrove patches, and there was no relationship to plot-scale mangrove cover. Marsh (Batis maritima) leaf and root litter had 1,000% and 35% faster breakdown rates (k) than mangrove (A. germinans) leaf and root litter. Soil temperatures beneath mangroves were 1.4 degrees C lower, decreasing aboveground k of fast- (cellulose) and slow-decomposing (wood) standard substrates. Wood k in shallow soil (0-15 cm) was higher in mangrove than marsh patches, but vegetation identity did not impact k in deeper soil (15-30 cm). We found that mangrove cover enhanced OC storage by increasing biomass, creating more recalcitrant organic matter and reducing k on the soil surface by altering microclimate, despite increasing wood k belowground and decreasing allochthonous OC subsidies. Our results illustrate the importance of mangroves in maintaining coastal OC storage, but also indicate that the impacts of vegetation change on OC storage may vary based on ecosystem conditions, organic-matter sources, and the relative spatiotemporal scales of mangrove vegetation change.

Abstract: The IPCC 2013 Wetlands Supplement provided new guidance for countries on inclusion of wetlands in their National GHG Inventories. The United States has responded by including managed coastal wetlands for the first time in its 2017 GHG Inventory report along with an updated time series in the most recent 2018 submission and plans to update the time series on an annual basis as part of its yearly submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The United States followed IPCC Good Practice Guidance when reporting sources and sinks associated with managed coastal wetlands. Here we show that intact vegetated coastal wetlands are a net sink for GHGs. Despite robust regulation that has protected substantial stocks of carbon, the United States continues to lose coastal wetlands to development and the largest loss of wetlands to open water occurs around the Mississippi Delta due mostly to upstream changes in hydrology and sediment delivery, and oil and gas extraction. These processes create GHG emissions. By applying comprehensive Inventory reporting, scientists in the United States have identified opportunities for reducing GHG emissions through restoration of coastal wetlands that also provide many important societal co-benefits.