Climate change is transforming ecosystems and affecting ecosystem goods and services. Along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts of the southeastern United States, the frequency and intensity of extreme freeze events greatly influence whether coastal wetlands are dominated by freeze‐sensitive woody plants (mangrove forests) or freeze‐tolerant grass‐like plants (salt marshes). In response to warming winters, mangroves have been expanding and displacing salt marshes at varying degrees of severity in parts of north Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. As winter warming accelerates, mangrove range expansion is expected to increasingly modify wetland ecosystem structure and function. Because there are differences in the ecological and societal benefits that salt marshes and mangroves provide, coastal environmental managers are challenged to anticipate the effects of mangrove expansion on critical wetland ecosystem services, including those related to carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, storm protection, erosion reduction, water purification, fisheries support, and recreation. Mangrove range expansion may also affect wetland stability in the face of extreme climatic events and rising sea levels. Here, we review the current understanding of the effects of mangrove range expansion and displacement of salt marshes on wetland ecosystem services in the southeastern United States. We also identify critical knowledge gaps and emerging research needs regarding the ecological and societal implications of salt marsh displacement by expanding mangrove forests. One consistent theme throughout our review is that there are ecological trade‐offs for consideration by coastal managers. Mangrove expansion and marsh displacement can produce beneficial changes in some ecosystem services, while simultaneously producing detrimental changes in other services. Thus, there can be local‐scale differences in perceptions of the impacts of mangrove expansion into salt marshes. For very specific local reasons, some individuals may see mangrove expansion as a positive change to be embraced, while others may see mangrove expansion as a negative change to be constrained.

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In a tidal marsh on the Savannah River (Georgia, USA), rate of plant community change along a salinity gradient was measured using a reciprocal transplant study. Donor sods were moved in all possible combinations from freshwater/oligotrophic to mesohaline sites and from mesohaline to fteshwater/oligohaline sites at four different locations. The reciprocal aspect of the experiment also allowed the determination of how the rate of plant community change is affected by the direction and level of displacement along the salinity gradient. Stem densities of each species were counted in each transplanted plot in June and October for a 30 month period. Plant community structure and composition changed by a significantly measurable amount within 6 to 18 months of a change in salinity. However, the time required for the transplanted sods to resemble their surrounding communities (at the p::S0.051evel) ranged from 6 to more than 30 months, with some transplanted sods never resembling the surrounding plant communities during the study period. If fresh-or oligohaline sods were moved to more saline environments, environmental conditions appeared to have an overriding effect on the vegetation and community change was rapid, occurring in 6 -10 months (mean = 9.3 months, SE = 1.9). Shifts from mesohaline to fresher sites on the salinity gradient delayed community change to about 18 months (mean Rate of Community Change Wetzel etal.