Vital ecosystems in tidal flats lost to development and rising sea levels

Coastal development and sea level rise are causing the decline of tidal flats along the world’s coastlines, according to research that has mapped the ecosystems for the first time.

Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria. 

Scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Queensland used machine-learning to analyse more than 700,000 satellite images to map the extent of and change in tidal flats around the globe.

The study, published in Nature, found tidal flat ecosystems in some countries declined by as much as 16% in the years from 1984 to 2016.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Vital ecosystems in tidal flats lost to development and rising sea levels.”