Climate change and artificial barrier effects on the Venice Lagoon: Inundation dynamics of salt marshes and implications for halophytes distribution

showed a tendency of the system to marine physical characteristics, in terms of an increase in salinity. The hypothetic increase of sea level tends to produce a decrease of areas like salt marshes, up to a total extinction for the most extreme scenario. The modeling results identified the correlation of halophytes growth and specific physical conditions of the environment (salinity, exposure time, soil depth respect to mean sea level), leading to the preliminary conclusion that the halophyte more resilient to the increase of flooding and of salinity (Salicornia veneta) would be the only one present in the future. The modeling implementation allowed the investigation of the whole lagoon, providing an hypothesis of the evolution of halophytes population in future scenarios and a precious tool also for the integrated management of these typologies of environment, in a climate change perspective.