Chapter 15
Habitat Changes Caused by Sea Level Rise,
Driven by Climate Change in the Northern
Adriatic Coastal Wetlands, Slovenia
Mitja Kaligaric ˇ and Danijel Ivajns ˇic ˇ
15.1 Seacoast and Climate Change
Coastal zone, as a boundary between sea and land is the most dynamical and
sensitive area, which comprises a great variety of natural ecosystems and resources
(Palazov and Stanchev 2006). Coastal habitats are already one of the most severely
endangered habitats due to intensive land-use changes occurring during the last
decades. Most changes are driven by tourism, which has caused substantial destruction of most endangered habitats such as coastal dunes. The second threat is
increasing area of ports, which require more and more space for containers or car
terminals. Urbanisation in general has caused an important pressure to coastal
areas, which offer higher living standards, better economic conditions, job and
education possibilities and favourable climate. Therefore, immigration pressure to
coastal areas is substantial. Besides that, there is also agriculture, developed in
adjacent areas to the coast, driven by favourable climate and increased requirement
of fresh products. The constantly increasing anthropogenic pressure is additionally
intensified by climate change effects, among which the sea level rise is a serious
threat. Sea level rise is a parameter which – in contrast to many other climatic
parameters, being also congruent among – is showing quite clear trends. However,
factors which cause changes in morphology of coasts are numerous and include
sediment supply, tidal currents, wave action, extreme weather events (Cooper and
Pilkey 2004), and also the subsidence of the surface (Lambeck et al. 2004).
Baustian et al. (2012) reports that in certain situation, such as high sedimentation
of both organic and inorganic materials coastal wetlands may be able to keep pace
with rising sea level. There are different projections of the sea level rise in different
coastal areas across the globe; thus the only relevant basis for reliable predictions
are local measurements on the concrete studied sites. For instance, one study in
M. Kaligaric ˇ (*) • D. Ivajns ˇic ˇ
Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
University of Maribor, Koros ˇka cesta 160, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia
e-mail: mitja.kaligaric@uni-mb.si; dani.ivajnsic@uni-mb.si
S. Rannow and M. Neubert (eds.), Managing Protected Areas in Central
and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change, Advances in Global Change Research 58,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7960-0_15, © The Author(s) 2014
233
Habitat Changes Caused by Sea Level Rise,
Driven by Climate Change in the Northern
Adriatic Coastal Wetlands, Slovenia
Mitja Kaligaric ˇ and Danijel Ivajns ˇic ˇ
15.1 Seacoast and Climate Change
Coastal zone, as a boundary between sea and land is the most dynamical and
sensitive area, which comprises a great variety of natural ecosystems and resources
(Palazov and Stanchev 2006). Coastal habitats are already one of the most severely
endangered habitats due to intensive land-use changes occurring during the last
decades. Most changes are driven by tourism, which has caused substantial destruction of most endangered habitats such as coastal dunes. The second threat is
increasing area of ports, which require more and more space for containers or car
terminals. Urbanisation in general has caused an important pressure to coastal
areas, which offer higher living standards, better economic conditions, job and
education possibilities and favourable climate. Therefore, immigration pressure to
coastal areas is substantial. Besides that, there is also agriculture, developed in
adjacent areas to the coast, driven by favourable climate and increased requirement
of fresh products. The constantly increasing anthropogenic pressure is additionally
intensified by climate change effects, among which the sea level rise is a serious
threat. Sea level rise is a parameter which – in contrast to many other climatic
parameters, being also congruent among – is showing quite clear trends. However,
factors which cause changes in morphology of coasts are numerous and include
sediment supply, tidal currents, wave action, extreme weather events (Cooper and
Pilkey 2004), and also the subsidence of the surface (Lambeck et al. 2004).
Baustian et al. (2012) reports that in certain situation, such as high sedimentation
of both organic and inorganic materials coastal wetlands may be able to keep pace
with rising sea level. There are different projections of the sea level rise in different
coastal areas across the globe; thus the only relevant basis for reliable predictions
are local measurements on the concrete studied sites. For instance, one study in
M. Kaligaric ˇ (*) • D. Ivajns ˇic ˇ
Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics,
University of Maribor, Koros ˇka cesta 160, SI-2000 Maribor, Slovenia
e-mail: mitja.kaligaric@uni-mb.si; dani.ivajnsic@uni-mb.si
S. Rannow and M. Neubert (eds.), Managing Protected Areas in Central
and Eastern Europe Under Climate Change, Advances in Global Change Research 58,
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7960-0_15, © The Author(s) 2014
233