Coastal Wetlands

The term coastal wetlands defines an area of land that is permanently or seasonally inundated with fresh, brackish, or saline water and contains a range of plant species that are uniquely adapted to the degree of inundation, the type of water that is present, as well as the soil conditions.

In some cases, coastal wetlands can extend across extremely large areas, as is the case for southern Louisiana along the north-central Gulf of Mexico (Figure 3.39). The importance of coastal wetlands is well known in southern Louisiana because there, like many other places, the coastal wetlands provide important habitat for a wide range of organisms. They also protect inland communities from the large storm surges that tropical cyclones can produce by creating friction against an incoming storm surge, resulting in a reduction of the magnitude and extent of inland flooding during tropical cyclones. The greater the width of intact wetlands, the less likely it is that more inland areas will experience the full force of a tropical cyclone. Southern Louisiana has been, however, experiencing drastic loss of wetland at rates that for the last several decades have been equivalent to the loss of a U.S. football field every approximately 30 minutes.

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Figure 3.39: U.S. map showing the different coastal watershed provinces and their geographic limits, which provides an indication of coastal wetlands and maritime forest distributions along the U.S. coasts.
Credit: EPA: Coastal Wetlands

• Coastal Wetland Examples