Managed realignment (MR) involves the landward relocation of sea defences to foster the (re)creation of coastal wetlands and achieve nature-based coastal protection. The wider application of MR is impeded by knowledge gaps related to lacking data on its effectiveness under extreme surges and the role of changes in vegetation cover, for example due to sea-level rise. We employ a...
Sea level rise threatens coastal wetlands worldwide, and restoration projects are implementing strategies that decrease vulnerability to this threat. Vegetation monitoring at sites employing new restoration strategies and determination of appropriate monitoring techniques improve understanding of factors leading to restoration success. In Central California, soil addition raised...
Fatty acid (FA) content and composition of zooplankton in Puget Sound, Washington (USA) was studied to investigate the nutritional quality of diverse zooplankton prey for juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in terms of their essential fatty acid (EFA) content. The study focus was on eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and arachidonic acid (ARA) as these are...
A summer polder had developed a deficit in surface elevation of about 20 cm in respect to rising sea level during its almost one-hundred-year period of embankment. We addressed the questions whether the distance of the restored site to the intertidal flats and continuation of livestock grazing in the restored site could hamper surface-elevation change during the first 10 years...
A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00964-9
The North River estuary (Massachusetts, USA) is a tidal marsh creek network where tidal dispersion processes dominate the salt balance. A field study using moorings, shipboard measurements, and drone surveys was conducted to characterize and quantify tidal trapping due to tributary creeks. During flood tide, saltwater propagates up the main channel and gets “trapped” in the...
The three contiguous National Estuary Programs of southwest Florida, along with partners from six coastal counties, have developed a tidal creek water quality assessment framework to help prioritize natural resource investigations across a large population of tidal creeks between Tampa Bay and Estero Bay, Florida. The assessment framework is based on outcomes of a...
Tracking the effects of habitat attributes on species distribution is pivotal to the understanding of community assembly across space and time. We used the elements of metacommunity (EMS), which evaluates coherence, turnover, and boundary clumping of species, to access the spatial patterns of nematodes from three coastal habitats with increasing degree to wave exposure, namely...
Stock-recruitment relationships for managing commercial fisheries are difficult to measure and notoriously poor, so marine ecologists have relied on larval recruitment as a proxy for how planktonic processes regulate populations and communities. However, my literature review revealed that coupling between reproductive output and recruitment in benthic populations was common...
Decision analysis is applied to habitat and community resilience planning in Maryland, USA. Sea level rise is causing wetland loss and increased flooding in coastal areas. A team at The Nature Conservancy analyzed a decision to identify high-value conservation planning units across Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore. The team selected two fundamental objectives: minimize habitat loss...
In Humboldt Bay, tectonic subsidence exacerbates sea-level rise (SLR). To build surface elevations and to keep pace with SLR, the sediment demand created by subsidence and SLR must be balanced by an adequate sediment supply. This study used an ensemble of plausible future scenarios to predict potential climate change impacts on suspended-sediment discharge (Qss) from fluvial...
Coastal dunes are characterised by strong interactions between biotic and abiotic factors along a short gradient from the shoreline to the inland region. We carried out an ecological analysis of the vegetation in a protected area of the Italian coast to evaluate the relationships among species abundance, the occurrence of morphoanatomical traits related to leaves, stems, and...
For most of the scientific disciplines associated with coastal and estuarine research, workforce representation does not match the demographics of communities we serve, especially for Black, Hispanic or Latino, and Indigenous peoples. This essay provides an overview of this inequity and identifies how a scientific society can catalyze representational, structural, and...
An index of vulnerability to coastal change, integrating indices of social vulnerability and exposure to coastal hazards, was created for East Africa to identify ‘areas of priority concern’ for risk reduction. Currently, 22% of East Africa’s coastline and 3.5 million people are at higher levels of exposure to coastal hazards, which would increase, respectively, to 39% and 6.9...
Seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marshes are critical coastal habitats that support high densities of juvenile fish and invertebrates. Yet which species are enhanced through these nursery habitats, and to what degree, remains largely unquantified. Densities of young-of-year fish and invertebrates in seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marsh edges as well as in paired adjacent...
Nitrogen pollution is one of the primary threats to coastal water quality globally, and governmental regulations and marine policy are increasingly requiring nitrogen remediation in management programs. Traditional mitigation strategies (e.g., advanced wastewater treatment) are not always enough to meet reduction goals. Novel opportunities for additional nitrogen reduction are...
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00937-y
Marine foundation species are critical to the structure and resilience of coastal ecosystems and provide key ecosystem services. Since many have suffered severe population declines, restoration of foundation species has been undertaken worldwide. The Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida) is a foundation species, and the restoration of depleted populations is a priority for maintaining...
Diseases are important drivers of population and ecosystem dynamics. This review synthesizes the effects of infectious diseases on the population dynamics of nine species of marine organisms in the Chesapeake Bay. Diseases generally caused increases in mortality and decreases in growth and reproduction. Effects of diseases on eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) appear to be...
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00922-5
The accumulation of contaminants and their potential mobility represent two of the main environmental issues facing coastal environments. Sediments often act as “reservoirs” of contaminants, including potentially toxic trace elements, but they can also be considered a secondary source of contamination due to remobilisation processes at the sediment-water interface which may...
Mechanisms driving the consumption and transport of tidal marsh nutrients and energy by fishes are of key interest in the San Francisco Estuary, CA, USA. By combining multiple data sources (gill-net catches, gut contents, channel morphology, tides), we modeled spatial and temporal patterns of fish abundance and gut fullness across a tidal marsh elevation gradient. Channel depth...
Environmental factors shape the structure and functioning of benthic communities. In coastal zones of the southwestern Baltic Sea, boulder fields represent one of the most productive habitats, supporting diverse benthic communities that provide many ecosystem services. In this study, the influence of the geological characteristics of boulder fields on the biodiversity of...
The world’s river deltas are increasingly vulnerable due to pressures from human activities and environmental change. In deltaic regions, the distribution of salinity controls the resourcing of fresh water for agriculture, aquaculture and human consumption; it also regulates the functioning of critical natural habitats. Despite numerous insightful studies, there are still...