Impacts of climate change on coastal habitats, relevant to the coastal and marine environment around the UK

Coastal habitats are at risk from both direct (temperature, rainfall), andindirect (sea-level rise, coastal erosion) impacts due to a changing climate.Beyond the environmental impacts and ensuing habitat loss, the changingclimate will have a significant societal impact to coastal communities rangingfrom health to livelihoods, as well as the loss of important ecosystem servicessuch as coastal defence – particularly relevant with predicted increase instorminess.Vegetated coastal ecosystems sequester carbon – another ‘ecosystem service’that could be disrupted due to climate change. There has been considerablerecent attention to the potential role these habitats could play in climatemitigation, and also in transferring carbon across the land–sea interface. Tounderstand the relative importance of these habitats within the global carboncycle, coastal habitats need to be accounted for in national greenhouse gasinventories, and a true multidisciplinary catchment-to-coast approach toresearch is required.Management options exist that can reduce the immediate impacts of climatechange, such as managed realignment and sediment recharge. Fixed landwardcoastal defences are becoming unsustainable and creating ‘coastal squeeze’,highlighting the need to work with natural processes to recreate more-naturalshorelines where possible