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Wetlands of Tropical Islands under Changing Climate: A Case from Nicobar Group of Islands, India

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Wetland Science

Abstract

Wetlands have significant value to the tropical islands owing to their significance in terms of biodiversity, coastal protection, and economic values. This chapter highlights the impact of climate change on the wetlands of tropical islands, with Nicobar group of islands in India as a representative case. Nicobar has a prominent tribal group practicing community living by gathering resources available from the terrestrial and coastal waters. The islands are vulnerable to sea level rise and extreme events such as tsunami, earthquake, and cyclones that affect their routine life. The receding arable and forest areas also affect their livelihood. The projected changes in mean temperature and precipitation for Nicobar region indicate that the rainfall pattern is all set to change significantly during different seasons and the pattern of change in Nicobar would be different from that in Andaman. The magnitude of climate vagaries is likely to be more prominent in the years to come. This chapter illustrates the vulnerability of tropical island ecosystems in general and the Nicobar Islands in particular, to changing climate and calls for incorporating sea level rise into coastal planning and development of appropriate decision-support systems for taking adaptive action, in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on these islands and their wetland ecosystems.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR – Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI), Port Blair, Andaman, India

    S. Dam Roy, A. Velmurugan, R. Kiruba Sankar & T. P. Swarnam

  2. National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change, Anna University Campus, Chennai, 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India

    P. Krishnan

  3. Regional Centre of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Nagpur, India

    A. Anand

  4. ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, Kerala, India

    Grinson George

Authors
  1. S. Dam Roy
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  2. P. Krishnan
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  3. A. Velmurugan
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  4. A. Anand
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  5. Grinson George
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  6. R. Kiruba Sankar
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  7. T. P. Swarnam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Dam Roy .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Impact Assessment Division, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj, Gujarat, India

    B. Anjan Kumar Prusty

  2. Terrestrial Ecology Division, Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj, Gujarat, India

    Rachna Chandra

  3. Sálim Ali Center for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

    P. A. Azeez

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Dam Roy, S. et al. (2017). Wetlands of Tropical Islands under Changing Climate: A Case from Nicobar Group of Islands, India. In: Prusty, B., Chandra, R., Azeez, P. (eds) Wetland Science . Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3715-0_11

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