Representing the function and sensitivity of coastal interfaces in Earth system models

Nicholas D Ward; J Patrick Megonigal; Ben Bond-Lamberty; Vanessa L Bailey; David Butman; Elizabeth A Canuel; Heida Diefenderfer; Neil K Ganju; Miguel A Goñi; Emily B Graham; Charles S Hopkinson; Tarang Khangaonkar; J Adam Langley; Nate G McDowell; Allison N Myers-Pigg; Rebecca B Neumann; Christopher L Osburn; René M Price; Joel Rowland; Aditi Sengupta; Marc Simard; Peter E Thornton; Maria Tzortziou; Rodrigo Vargas; Pamela B Weisenhorn; Lisamarie Windham-Myers

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-16236-2

Representing the function and sensitivity of coastal interfaces in Earth system models

Nat Commun. 2020 May 18;11(1):2458. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16236-2.

Authors

Nicholas D Ward^{1

2}, J Patrick Megonigal³, Ben Bond-Lamberty⁴, Vanessa L Bailey⁵, David Butman^{6

7}, Elizabeth A Canuel⁸, Heida Diefenderfer^{9

6}, Neil K Ganju¹⁰, Miguel A Goñi¹¹, Emily B Graham⁵, Charles S Hopkinson¹², Tarang Khangaonkar⁹, J Adam Langley¹³, Nate G McDowell⁵, Allison N Myers-Pigg⁹, Rebecca B Neumann⁷, Christopher L Osburn¹⁴, René M Price¹⁵, Joel Rowland¹⁶, Aditi Sengupta⁵, Marc Simard¹⁷, Peter E Thornton¹⁸, Maria Tzortziou¹⁹, Rodrigo Vargas²⁰, Pamela B Weisenhorn²¹, Lisamarie Windham-Myers²²

Affiliations

¹ Coastal Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, 98382, USA. [email protected].
² College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA. [email protected].
³ Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD, 21037, USA.
⁴ Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
⁵ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99354, USA.
⁶ College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
⁷ Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁸ Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary, P.O. Box 1346, Gloucester Point, VA, 23062, USA.
⁹ Coastal Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sequim, WA, 98382, USA.
¹⁰ Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA.
¹¹ College of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
¹² Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
¹³ Department of Biology, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, 19085, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Earth and Environment, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 33199, USA.
¹⁶ Earth & Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
¹⁷ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA.
¹⁸ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA.
¹⁹ Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, City University of New York, New York, NY, 10003, USA.
²⁰ Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA.
²¹ Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, 60439, USA.
²² USGS Water Mission Area, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA.

Abstract

Between the land and ocean, diverse coastal ecosystems transform, store, and transport material. Across these interfaces, the dynamic exchange of energy and matter is driven by hydrological and hydrodynamic processes such as river and groundwater discharge, tides, waves, and storms. These dynamics regulate ecosystem functions and Earth's climate, yet global models lack representation of coastal processes and related feedbacks, impeding their predictions of coastal and global responses to change. Here, we assess existing coastal monitoring networks and regional models, existing challenges in these efforts, and recommend a path towards development of global models that more robustly reflect the coastal interface.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.