The ecology of coastal wetlands

PRATOLONGO, P

Marine ecology in a changing world

CRC-Press

Año: 2013; p. 140 - 164

In coastal environments, continuous change is the paradigm. Whatever the Holocene relative sea level curve is, coastlines worldwide are still evolving, estuaries are not at a steady state and coastal wetlands continue to migrate. Through this chapter, we will consider these changes in the geological time scale as the reference state or ?normal? pattern, and we will focus on those changes that are affecting the world?s coastal environments within time scales of days to centuries. Human activities can modify rates of natural changes, and there are evidences of anthropogenic actions that have significantly enhanced changes driven by natural agents. As we cannot separate human activities from natural changes, we will consider not just ecological changes driven by global atmospheric and climate alterations, but also coastal change created by human use of water on land, and increased erosion of terrestrial sediments, as well as direct human destruction of coastal habitats