The Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA or “Assessment”) is a collaborative effort to evaluate the vulnerability of four key ecosystems and eleven associated species to the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and land use change across the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is designed to inform land managers, researchers, and decision makers about the relative vulnerability across individual species and ecosystems and how that vulnerability varies spatially across the Gulf region for each. The GCVA is a qualitative assessment that compiles the expert opinions of managers, scientists, administrators, and others. The results presented herein represent informed opinions of the experts engaged, and as such, they reflect [...]
Summary
The Gulf Coast Vulnerability Assessment (GCVA or “Assessment”) is a collaborative effort to evaluate the vulnerability of four key ecosystems and eleven associated species to the effects of climate change, sea level rise, and land use change across the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is designed to inform land managers, researchers, and decision makers about the relative vulnerability across individual species and ecosystems and how that vulnerability varies spatially across the Gulf region for each. The GCVA is a qualitative assessment that compiles the expert opinions of managers, scientists, administrators, and others. The results presented herein represent informed opinions of the experts engaged, and as such, they reflect individual experiences, values, and perspectives. With an understanding of these limitations, these results are extremely useful in helping identify the relative vulnerabilities of ecosystems and species in different areas of the Gulf Coast, as well as across taxa and habitat types. One anticipated application of this information is in project and proposal review, as a means to identify vulnerable resources that may require a greater level of scrutiny to ensure sustainability. Similarly, using this information to broadly evaluate where increased conservation effort should be directed to reduce vulnerabilities (i.e. adaptation) is another intended use of these results. From a research perspective, high variability in assessors’ individual scores for specific aspects of the assessment help identify where uncertainties exist that should be the target of further investigation. The authors caution that these results should not be applied at scales below the subregion without careful consideration. This was a team effort led to completion by a Core Planning Team coordinated by Amanda Watson. Ecosystem and Species Expert Teams were established for each of the four ecosystems evaluated: Mangrove work was led by Laura Geselbracht (The Nature Conservancy); Tidal Emergent Marsh by Mark Woodrey (Grand Bay NERR/Mississippi State University); Oyster Reef by Megan LaPeyre (U. S. Geological Survey/LSU Agricultural Center); and Barrier Islands by P. Soupy Dalyander (U. S. Geological Survey). AddiƟonal authors included Blair Tirpak (U. S. Geological Survey/Gulf Coast Prairie LCC), Joshua Reece (Valdosta State University), and Cynthia Kallio Edwards (Gulf Coast Prairie LCC). The Core Planning Team, Ecosystem and Species Expert Teams, and the individual assessors are collectively referred to as the Assessment Team throughout the document.
