Assessing the ecological vulnerability of natural flood defences and risks to agricultural land following seawater flooding
type: CreativeWork
description: Anthropogenic climate change is intensifying extreme weather events, affecting the natural environment by altering ecosystems, and leading to habitat loss. Pressingly, the frequency and severity of storm surge flooding in low-lying coastal regions is projected to increase under future climate scenarios. There is a growing need to understand how these events will impact coastal ecosystems, and the measures that can be taken to mitigate against these effects and protect natural resources. Furthermore, with increased pressures placed on agriculture to meet food demand, protecting arable land resources in coastal regions from the rising threat of flooding is imperative. This thesis explores how simulated storm surge flooding will affect natural and cultivated coastal ecosystems. Chapter 2 investigates how coastal grassland plant species respond to pulse episodes of simulated seawater flooding in laboratory-based experiments. Taxonomic trends in species responses indicate Fabaceae as extremely sensitive, while Poaceae exhibited considerable tolerance to the imposed flooding scenarios. More widely, this showed that storm surge events are expected to cause shifts to natural coastal plant communities, with high likelihood that key plant families will be filtered out of coastal habitats following pulse episodes of seawater flooding. Coastal plant communities have a vital role in flood defence, protecting valuable terrestrial land resources such as agriculture. Any loss to their functional capacity could reduce ecosystem resilience and result in heightened flood risk to inland areas from future storm surge events. Chapter 3 investigates how archetypal pioneer marsh species, Spartina anglica, responds to pulse episodes of simulated seawater flooding in a greenhouse-based experiment. The results demonstrate that this species exhibits a strong tolerance to short-term immersion, with no mortalities and minimal effects on growth and biomass. These findings suggest that established…
abstract: Anthropogenic climate change is intensifying extreme weather events, affecting the natural environment by altering ecosystems, and leading to habitat loss. Pressingly, the frequency and severity of storm surge flooding in low-lying coastal regions is projected to increase under future climate scenarios. There is a growing need to understand how these events will impact coastal ecosystems, and the measures that can be taken to mitigate against these effects and protect natural resources. Furthermore, with increased pressures placed on agriculture to meet food demand, protecting arable land resources in coastal regions from the rising threat of flooding is imperative. This thesis explores how simulated storm surge flooding will affect natural and cultivated coastal ecosystems. Chapter 2 investigates how coastal grassland plant species respond to pulse episodes of simulated seawater flooding in laboratory-based experiments. Taxonomic trends in species responses indicate Fabaceae as extremely sensitive, while Poaceae exhibited considerable tolerance to the imposed flooding scenarios. More widely, this showed that storm surge events are expected to cause shifts to natural coastal plant communities, with high likelihood that key plant families will be filtered out of coastal habitats following pulse episodes of seawater flooding. Coastal plant communities have a vital role in flood defence, protecting valuable terrestrial land resources such as agriculture. Any loss to their functional capacity could reduce ecosystem resilience and result in heightened flood risk to inland areas from future storm surge events. Chapter 3 investigates how archetypal pioneer marsh species, Spartina anglica, responds to pulse episodes of simulated seawater flooding in a greenhouse-based experiment. The results demonstrate that this species exhibits a strong tolerance to short-term immersion, with no mortalities and minimal effects on growth and biomass. These findings suggest that established…
author: Barratt, Cally
language: eng
date published: 2026-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:49:48Z
provider: University of Plymouth
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Plymouth