Validating the use of the Resilience Index to classify the ecological resilience of coastal marshes in eastern and northern Georgian Bay to climate-induced extremes in water-level fluctuations

Research over the past 20 years in our lab showed that the biodiversity of fish and plant communities in certain wetlands were more resilient than others to extremes in water-level fluctuations caused by climate change. We developed the Resilience Index that reflects wetland hydrology and geomorphology using variables that are relatively easy to measure in GIS, and found it to explain a large amount of variation in degree of ecosystem resilience. Over the next 4 years, we will collect field data to validate this Index. Once validated, we will use it to classify degree of resilience of all mapped coastal marshes in eastern and northern Georgian Bay. We will share these maps with conservation groups to ensure that the most resilient wetlands will be protected from human development. Besides supporting biodiversity, identifying resilient wetlands will also protect natural infrastructure for climate-change adaptation.