Global Change

Sea-level rise, warming temperatures, and changes in weather patterns pose particular challenges to the Chesapeake Bay and coastal zone. Learn what VIMS scientists are doing to help society understand, mitigate, and adapt to our rapidly changing climate. Also visit our Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) and AdaptVA and CCRFR websites.

Top Stories

• Governor calls on VIMS to help increase flooding resiliency (Nov 2018) Executive Order leverages VIMS long-term monitoring programs and expertise in flood forecasting to help make the Commonwealth more resilient to sea-level rise.
• VIMS will once again help “Catch the King” (Oct 2018) Event provides water-level data used to improve VIMS’ street-level inundation model and its predictions of coastal flooding in Hampton Roads.
• New study helps explain recent scarcity of bay nettles (Oct 2018) Comparing environmental conditions in the Chesapeake Bay to the abundance & distribution of its jellyfish populations raises concerns that a predicted shift toward wetter springs may harm the Bay ecosystem.

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Advisory Service Reports/White Papers

Read the white papers prepared by VIMS' scientists for our Initiative for Coastal Climate Change Research.

Five Most Recent Journal Articles

1. Van Dam, B.R., et al., 2018. Watershed-Scale Drivers of Air-Water CO2 Exchanges in Two Lagoonal North Carolina (USA) Estuaries. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 123(1): p. 271-287.  https://doi.org/10.1002/2017jg004243
2. Tatters, A.O., et al., 2018. Interactive effects of temperature, CO2 and nitrogen source on a coastal California diatom assemblage. Journal of Plankton Research, 40(2): p. 151-164.  https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbx074
3. Richardson, J.P., J.S. Lefcheck, and R.J. Orth, 2018. Warming temperatures alter the relative abundance and distribution of two co-occurring foundational seagrasses in Chesapeake Bay, USA. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 599: p. 65-74.  https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12620
4. Pace, S.M., E.N. Powell, and R. Mann, 2018. Two-hundred year record of increasing growth rates for ocean quahogs (Arctica islandica) from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 503: p. 8-22.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.01.010
5. Moomaw, W.R., et al., 2018. Wetlands In a Changing Climate: Science, Policy and Management. Wetlands, 38(2): p. 183-205.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1023-8
6. Lefcheck, J.S., et al., 2018. Long-term nutrient reductions lead to the unprecedented recovery of a temperate coastal region. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(14): p. 3658-3662.  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715798115

Read a full list of VIMS-authored journal articles related to global change.