Defining the coast and sentinel ecosystems for coastal observations of global change

Christian, Robert R.; Mazzilli, Stefano

doi:10.1007/s10750-006-0417-4

Cited by 23 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 16 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…Coastal Planning See review in Christian & Mazzilli 2007 [38] Coastal Zone (a) the seaward limit of the coastal zone shall be the external limit of the territorial waters of States Parties (b) the landward limit of the coastal zone shall be the territorial limit of local coastal administrative units.…”

Section: Archaeology Broodbank 2000 [15]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing Islandscapes: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges Exemplified in the Mediterranean

Vogiatzakis

Zomeni

Mannion

2017

Land

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Abstract:Islands across the world have evolved at the interface between land and sea, thus comprising landscapes and seascapes. Many islands have also been influenced by anthropogenic factors, which have given rise to mosaics of anthromes (sensu Ellis and Ramankutty). These elements of landscapes, seascapes, and cultural impacts in varied proportions, generate unique environments which merit a unique term: islandscapes. The use of the term islandscape is advocated as the only term which encompasses all of the constituent components of an island, in a holistic manner. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the applicability of existing landscape and seascape character assessment methodologies in an island context, and to propose a methodological framework for mapping the space which defines the term 'islandscape'. The challenges and opportunities stemming from the use of the term are exemplified with reference to the Mediterranean islands.

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Section: Archaeology Broodbank 2000 [15]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing Islandscapes: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges Exemplified in the Mediterranean

Vogiatzakis

Zomeni

Mannion

2017

Land

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“…There is an increasing demand of indicators for environmental reporting, planning, management and monitoring (Nimeijer and de Groot 2008), and coastal areas are among those which require urgent attention due to the severity of reported and forecasted impacts of environmental changes (Feagin et al 2005a, Christian andMazzilli 2007). The close relationship between coastal dynamics and dune vegetation assembly has been stressed as a promising source of indicators, particularly in the case of exposed foredune ecosystems (García-Mora et al 1999, Lomba et al 2008.…”

Section: Can Cost-efficient Indicators Of Prevailing Coastal Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coastal landscapes are highly dynamic systems predicted to be severely impacted by global environmental changes (Urbanski 2001, Davidson-Arnott 2005, Feagin et al 2005a, Christian and Mazzilli 2007, e.g. due to sea-level rise and related shifts in sediment budgets, shoreline location, water balance and diversity of biological communities (Greaver and Sternberg 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fine-scale patterns of vegetation assembly in the monitoring of changes in coastal sand-dune landscapes

et al. 2010

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Understanding dune ecosystem responses to multi-scale environmental changes can provide the framework for reliable forecasts and cost-efficient protocols for detecting shifts in prevailing coastal dynamics. Based on the hypothesis that stress and disturbance interact as primary community controls in coastal dunes, we studied the fine-scale floristic assembly of foredune vegetation, in its relation to topography, along regional and local environmental gradients in the 200 km long coastline of northern Portugal, encompassing a major biogeographic transition in western Europe. Thirty topographic profiles perpendicular to the shoreline were recorded at ten sites along the regional climate gradient, and vegetation was sampled by recording the frequency of plant species along those profiles. Quantitative topographic attributes of vegetated dune profiles (e.g. length or height) exhibited wide variations relatable to differences in prevailing coastal dynamics. Metrics of taxonomic diversity (e.g. total species richness and its additive beta component) and of the functional composition of vegetation were highly correlated to attributes of dune topography. Under transgressive dynamics, vegetation profiles have fewer species, increased dominance, lower turnover rates, and lower total vegetation cover. These changes may drive a decrease in structural and functional diversity, with important consequences for resistance, resilience and other ecosystem properties. Moreover, differences in both vegetation assembly (in meta-stable dunes) and response to increased disturbance (in eroding dunes) between distinct biogeographic contexts highlight a possible decline in facilitation efficiency under extreme physical stress (i.e. under Mediterranean climate) and support the significance of functional approaches in the study of local ecosystem responses to disturbance along regional gradients. Our results strongly suggest that assessing fine-scale community assembly can provide insights on the relation between dune vegetation, environmental filters and ecosystem processes. A combination of cost-efficient indicators from dune topography and vegetation is thus suggested as a promising approach to survey, forecast and monitor changes in coastal dune ecosystems.

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“…Coastal ecosystems, due to their narrow width and occurrence across the land‐sea interface, are particularly prone to these errors. For instance, different spatial definitions of coastline can strongly affect the assessment of conservation status by decreasing or increasing extent and coverage of these ecosystems by PAs (Christian & Mazzilli ; Spalding et al ). Specifically, although IUCN defines the boundary between the marine and terrestrial portions of PAs as the line of high tide, most coastlines are defined as the line of medium tide.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Errors and Gaps in Spatial Data Sets on Assessment of Conservation Progress

Visconti

Marco

Álvarez‐Romero

et al. 2013

Conservation Biology

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Data on the location and extent of protected areas, ecosystems, and species' distributions are essential for determining gaps in biodiversity protection and identifying future conservation priorities. However, these data sets always come with errors in the maps and associated metadata. Errors are often overlooked in conservation studies, despite their potential negative effects on the reported extent of protection of species and ecosystems. We used 3 case studies to illustrate the implications of 3 sources of errors in reporting progress toward conservation objectives: protected areas with unknown boundaries that are replaced by buffered centroids, propagation of multiple errors in spatial data, and incomplete protected-area data sets. As of 2010, the frequency of protected areas with unknown boundaries in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) caused the estimated extent of protection of 37.1% of the terrestrial Neotropical mammals to be overestimated by an average 402.8% and of 62.6% of species to be underestimated by an average 10.9%. Estimated level of protection of the world's coral reefs was 25% higher when using recent finer-resolution data on coral reefs as opposed to globally available coarse-resolution data. Accounting for additional data sets not yet incorporated into WDPA contributed up to 6.7% of additional protection to marine ecosystems in the Philippines. We suggest ways for data providers to reduce the errors in spatial and ancillary data and ways for data users to mitigate the effects of these errors on biodiversity assessments.

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Defining the coast and sentinel ecosystems for coastal observations of global change

Abstract: The detection, attribution and pre-

Cited by 23 publications

References 16 publications

Characterizing Islandscapes: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges Exemplified in the Mediterranean

Characterizing Islandscapes: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges Exemplified in the Mediterranean

Fine-scale patterns of vegetation assembly in the monitoring of changes in coastal sand-dune landscapes

Effects of Errors and Gaps in Spatial Data Sets on Assessment of Conservation Progress

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