Major threats of pollution and climate change to global coastal ecosystems and enhanced management for sustainability

Abstract

Coastal zone is of great importance in the provision of various valuable ecosystem services. However, it is also sensitive and vulnerable to environmental changes due to high human populations and interactions between the land and ocean. Major threats of pollution from over enrichment of nutrients, increasing metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and climate change have led to severe ecological degradation in the coastal zone, while few studies have focused on the combined impacts of pollution and climate change on the coastal ecosystems at the global level. A global overview of nutrients, metals, POPs, and major environmental changes due to climate change and their impacts on coastal ecosystems was carried out in this study. Coasts of the Eastern Atlantic and Western Pacific were hotspots of concentrations of several pollutants, and mostly affected by warming climate. These hotspots shared the same features of large populations, heavy industry and (semi-) closed sea. Estimation of coastal ocean capital, integrated management of land-ocean interaction in the coastal zone, enhancement of integrated global observation system, and coastal ecosystem-based management can play effective roles in promoting sustainable management of coastal marine ecosystems. Enhanced management from the perspective of mitigating pollution and climate change was proposed.

Metal contamination and oxidative stress biomarkers in estuarine fish following a mine tailing disaster

“…Tissues like the liver, with a higher lipid content, can alert about the current accumulation of metals since the metals can reach it very quickly through the bloodstream after absorption and, thus, these concentrations are proportional to those present in the environment (Dural, Göksu & Özak, 2007;Lima-Júnior et al, 2012, , Bosco-Santos & Luiz-Silva, 2020. Increased concentrations of metals in muscle tissue were in bottom-dwelling species C. spixii and G. genidens, may suggest a saturation response for metal and metalloid contamination (Lu et al, 2018;Souza et al, 2018).…”

“…Estuaries are among the most threatened coastal ecosystems and are continually impacted by anthropogenic actions which often increase the input of organic and inorganic pollutants to the water and sediment (Muniz et al, 2006;Hadlich et al, 2018;Lu et al, 2018). Pollutants released into estuarine ecosystems include trace metals and metalloids that are stable, toxic and persistent environmental contaminants, i.e.…”

Risk to North American Birds from Climate Change-Related Threats

“…Despite most of our species' distributions covering a much wider extent in North America, we decided to focus on a US-based risk assessment due to limitations in the availability and spatial coverage of our threats data. We also understand that multiple threats not addressed here could also affect birds under climate change scenarios, including increased exposure to pollution [e.g., pesticides; ,118], heavy metal depositing; [119], expansion of invasive species [120], increased predation pressure [e.g., snakes; ,88], exposure to novel or intensifying diseases [e.g., West Nile virus, tick-borne illnesses, Bird Flu; ,121], increasing ocean temperatures [122], food chain collapse [123], or altered biotic interactions [124,125], to name a selection of potential threats.…”

An Evaluation of Autonomous In Situ Temperature Loggers in a Coastal Region of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea for Use in the Validation of Near-Shore Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Measurements

“…It continues to be an area of major human interaction, such as commercial trading and cultural exchange, providing food supplies, serving transportation via sea routes, and most recently, providing places for leisure resorts and the tourist economy to grow [1]. In terms of modern climatology, urban planning, and legislature for the integrated development of the coastal zone and near-shore land, it is vital to qualify and quantify various factors that may impact any action to be made in these areas [2].…”