Eric M. Gulledge, Luma Akil and H. Anwar Ahmad The Impact of Climate Change on Sea Level Rise in the US Gulf Coast from 1985–2015 Eric M. Gulledge, Luma Akil and H. Anwar Ahmad Department of Biology, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS 39217 USA 13th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Environmental Health INTRODUCTION METHODS DISCUSSION The Gulf coast states are being affected by sea level rise in different ways, such as salt water intrusions, vector-borne diseases, sea-borne diseases, increasing storm severity, and economic vulnerability. The supervision and management of sea level rise has posed a serious challenge to U.S. federal agencies and most coastal states. There is an urgent need to analyze sea level variations due to various climatic factors to understand the recent upward trends. The up and downward trend of the seasonal cycle (Figure 4) has been attributed to the active seasonal variations in the speed of the Gulf Stream. The transfer of the Florida current, characterized by the Loop current in the Gulf of Mexico, to the Gulf Stream contributes to a decline in January and a peak in July. The western half of the Gulf of Mexico appears to have higher mean sea level rates than Alabama and Florida. The meteorological and oceanographic data showed a 10% impact of global warming on the overall sea level rates in the Gulf of Mexico. Data Collection from NOAA Tide Gauges from TX, AL, MS, LA, and FL (1985-2015) http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends.html Analysis of Variance Determine significant differences in MSL among states Linear Regression Determine the relative mean sea level per year Regression Analysis Determine the association between meteorological data and monthly sea levels T-Test Comparison of two fifteen year interval MSL data OBJECTIVE RESULTS CONCLUSIONS Determine the variation of sea level rise in the Gulf of Mexico Determine the relationship between meteorological and oceanographic factors to increasing sea level rise in the Gulf of Mexico Determine the variation of sea level rise among bordering states in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf Coast is increasing 4.2 mm per year in relative mean sea level from 1985 to 2015. The 1985-2015 is characterized by an upward trend. The increase in sea level rates, in highly vulnerable areas, such as Louisiana and Texas raises serious concerns. Louisiana and Texas had significantly higher relative mean sea level rates compared to other tested Gulf States of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Water and air temperature had a positive correlation with MSL with an R2 value of 0.067 and 0.0695, respectively. STUDY SITES Figure 2. Linear trend of sea level rate in the Gulf Coast. Figure 3. Mean and standard deviation of sea level rate for NOAA tide. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number G12MD007581 and by the Mississippi INBRE, funded by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P20GM103476. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Figure 1: Locations of the twenty tide gauges across the Gulf Coast. Figure 4. Seasonal mean sea level cycle in the Gulf Coast. Table 1. Regression table of all parameters to mean sea level.