Coastal wetlands of temperate eastern Australia: will Cinderella ever go to the ball?

Abstract

Abstract. The many sheltered embayments, riverine estuaries and drowned river valleys of temperate eastern Australia support a large area and a wide diversity of coastal wetlands. This region also supports over one-half of the country's population and includes its major tourist and industrial centres. The story of Cinderella provides an excellent simile for the status of coastal wetlands in this region of Australia: coastal wetlands provide extremely valuable ecosystem services (indeed, of considerably greater value than those provided by an equivalent area of inland wetland), yet they are undervalued by the general community, by natural-resource managers and by funding agencies. The selective investment of ecological research (including rehabilitation studies) into inland wetlands -and in particular into floodplain wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin -has left us inadequately equipped to understand how temperate coastal wetlands function, how they will respond to climate change, and how degraded sites can be rehabilitated. Not only is an increase in research funding required, but funding has to be coordinated and focussed. The problem, however, is not only a lack of research funding; at a more fundamental level, the widespread ignorance of the value of temperate coastal wetlands needs also to be addressed.

Estimating the Potential Blue Carbon Gains From Tidal Marsh Rehabilitation: A Case Study From South Eastern Australia

“…The predictive maps of the extended study area, displaying the effects of rising sea levels by 2100, were created using a modeling approach adjusted for tidal marsh accretion over this time (recovered site's mean accretion rate = 1.30 mm year −1 ). This mean accretion rate is 1.6-to 2.6-fold lower than the SLR rates estimated for south-eastern Australia (2.1-2.8 mm year −1 ) and the global (3.4 mm year −1 ), respectively (Boon, 2012). As such, the predictive maps indicate that much of the tidal marsh area in the lower salt ponds will not keep pace with SLR.…”

Coastal wetlands of Victoria, south‐eastern Australia: providing the inventory and condition information needed for their effective management and conservation

“…The inventory data shown in Table indicate that, State‐wide, Victoria currently supports 5177 ha (~52 km 2 ) of mangroves, 19 212 ha (~192 km 2 ) of coastal saltmarsh of all types, and 3227 ha (~32 km 2 ) of Juncus kraussii ‐dominated EVC 10 Estuarine Wetland. Given that a range of other estuarine wetland types are found across the Victorian coast (Boon, ; Department of Sustainability and Environment, ), it is important to remember that the inventory provided in this paper refers to mangroves, coastal saltmarsh, and Juncus kraussii ‐dominated systems only; estuarine beds of Phragmites australis (i.e. EVC 952 Estuarine Reedbed) and other wetland types would have to be added to this tally to obtain a comprehensive overview of the area of coastal wetlands in the State.…”

“…Other common types of coastal vegetation dominated by species with various degrees of salt‐tolerance, for example Juncus kraussii , Phragmites australis , and Melaleuca ericifolia , are sometimes included in inventories of saltmarsh taxa (Sainty et al ., ) but are covered by other, mostly well‐defined EVCs in the Victorian typology (e.g. Juncus kraussii in EVC 10 Estuarine Wetland; Phragmites australis in EVC 952 Estuarine Reedbed; Melaleuca ericifolia in EVC 953 Estuarine Scrub): see Boon ().…”

“…Although Saintilan () recorded nearly 80 species of vascular plants in Australian coastal saltmarsh, only in relatively few cases is the full extent of floristic diversity recognized (Morrisey, ; Keith, ). Located behind the saltmarsh zone of the Victorian coast is often a fringe of other types of brackish‐water wetland, including sea rush ( Juncus kraussii ) marshes and swamp paperbark ( Melaleuca ericifolia ) swamps (Boon, ). Figure shows the juxtaposition of these other types of coastal wetland.…”

Public perceptions of wetlands and preferences for on-site visitor facilities and communication media: a case study from an Australian Ramsar wetland

“…Public awareness of wetlands is crucial to their wise use by balancing conservation against long-term degradation and loss of wetland values (Brock et al 1999;Finlayson and Rea 1999;Nam et al 2010;Meng et al 2017). Awareness can also increase public support for wetland conservation through avenues such as media coverage, direct action, policy, legislation, funding and research (Reddy and Char 2006;Duarte et al 2008;Boon 2012).…”