Coastal Environments

SIMIONATO, C. G.; ALFARO, E.; MARTINEZ, R.

Montevideo

Conferencia; World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, Developing, Linking, and Applying Climate Knowledge; 2014

Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have a strong relationship with the coastal environment and there is increasing demand for the subdivision, use and development of coastal space and resources. The complex nature of the coastal environment means that managing the effects of coastal hazards is challenging. The coastal zone is one of the most dynamic natural systems because there the hydrosphere, the lithosphere and the atmosphere meet and interact, forming interconnected systems. Coastal ecosystems are complex entities consisting of living beings, the physical environment they inhabit, and the interactions within and between these two components. Coastal zones comprise many habitats, all of which have been highly modified over millennia by human activities. As a consequence of the last statements, many of these ecosystems have been considered for marine protected areas trough the Americas, not only because of their natural richness, but also because their great economic value. Coasts are of great ecological and socioeconomic importance. They sustain economies and provide livelihoods through fisheries, ports, tourism, and other industries like their recent consideration as clean forms of power generation. They also provide ecosystem services such as providing food, regulating atmospheric composition and cycling of nutrients and water. These areas have been centers of human settlement since the dawn of civilization, and also have cultural and aesthetic value. Coastal ecosystems are among the most productive because they are enriched by land-based nutrients and nutrients that well up into the coastal waters from deeper levels of the ocean. As a consequence, they are repositories of biological diversity and provide a wide range of goods and services. Coastlines are among the most populated regions. A number of major cities are located in coastal areas and residential development in coastal areas is rapidly occurring with, in many cases, little future proofing for coastal hazards. Coastal oceans are the most fished, the most modified, and the most subject to natural and industrial disasters. Loss and degradation of coastal zone ecosystems are affected by direct and indirect drivers and stressors, most of them of anthropogenic origin. The main indirect drivers and stressors are: population expansion and increased demands for resources; distribution of wealth and social inequalities; policy failure; market failure and/or distortions; globalization; and poor development model. Direct drivers and stressors are: loss, fragmentation, and degradation of habitats; overexploitation of resources; pollution; introduction of alien invasive species; and climate change and variability, which interacts with the previous factors listed, in many cases reinforcing their impacts. Both direct and indirect drivers and stressors are agents of global change. They do not operate singly but form an interacting and often synergistic complex. Some of the most dramatic observed and/or predicted consequences of their action are: changes in species distribution, organism metabolism and ecological processes such as productivity and species interactions; changes in ocean chemistry, eutrophication, acidification, hypoxia; rising sea level; chronic erosion and contamination; shifts in weather patterns and greater spreading of exotic species. While the pressures along the coastal zone increase, the challenge of the Integrated Coastal Management remains difficult to accomplish. One of the most important needs to achieve the goal is the availability, communication and proper use of scientific information and here is where the role of ocean/climate services becomes fundamental.