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

Wetlands have significant value to the tropical islandsowing 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 islandsin India as a representative case. Nicobar has a prominent tribal group practicing community livingby gathering resources available from the terrestrial and coastal waters. The islandsare vulnerable to sea level riseand 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 islandecosystems in general and the Nicobar Islandsin particular, to changing climate and calls for incorporating sea level riseinto coastal planning and development of appropriate decision-support systems for taking adaptive action, in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change on these islandsand their wetland ecosystems.