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The thin border between the land and the oceans plays a crucial role in maintaining the Earth’s ecological balance:
… tidal wetlands represent a small fraction of the land surface but are among the strongest long-term carbon sinks, per unit area, because of continuous organic carbon accumulation in sediments with rising sea level (Chmura et al., 2003)…
Tidal wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, continuously accumulating organic carbon that results from environmental conditions that inhibit organic matter decomposition. As a result, intact tidal wetlands are capable of storing vast amounts of autochthonous organic carbon (i.e., fixed through photosynthesis on site) as well as intercepting and storing allochthonous organic carbon (i.e., produced off site, terrigenous; Canuel et al., 2012). Documented carbon-related ecosystem benefits, referred to as “services,” include significant uptake and storage of carbon in wetland soils, as well as export to the ocean of organic matter, which increases the productivity of coastal fisheries (Day et al., 2013). Globally, tidal wetlands are strongly variable in age and structure. Some of today’s tidal wetlands have persisted for more than 6,500 years, accumulating to a depth of up to 13 m of tidal peat (Drexler et al., 2009; McKee et al., 2007; Peteet et al., 2006), but some wetlands are young and shallow because of recent human influences that enhanced sediment delivery to nearshore waters.
This thin strip of the world’s surface is a crucial defense against effects of carbon combustion:
Tidal vegetated wetlands (mangroves and saltmarshes) are blue carbon ecosystems1 that are highly efficient in sequestering and storing carbon for mitigating climate change2,3. The anaerobic sedimentary environment, high autotrophic production and ability to trap allochthonous (marine and/or riverine) sediment input4,5 promote long-term carbon storage in these coastal ecosystems. Owing to the high carbon accumulation capacity, mangrove conservation and reforestation have been promoted in international initiatives for mitigating the risk of climate change6.
Of course, how we are changing the climate is irreparably harming the very tidal zones that might help limit the damage:
Tidal marshes are vegetated intertidal habitats that occur at the land-sea interface and thus serve as critical transition zones linking marine, freshwater, and terrestrial processes (Boström et al. 2011). Recent research demonstrates the urgent need to understand both short- and long-term impacts of climate change and sea level rise (SLR) on tidal marsh ecosystem function, food webs, and fisheries support…
Tidal marshes evolved in dynamic coastal and estuarine settings, and their position at the land-sea interface exposes them to a variety of environmental drivers (e.g., ocean currents, watershed hydrology) and environmental gradients (e.g., salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen; Lauchlan and Nagelkerken 2020). Mounting evidence suggests that some directional, periodic, and stochastic variation in environmental conditions is intensifying under climate change [e.g., global or regional SLR, sea surface temperature (SST), and anomalous droughts, floods, or heatwaves, respectively; Trenberth 2011; Boyd et al. 2015; Nerem et al. 2018]. While coastal and estuarine ecosystems can resist and recover from minor to moderate natural disturbances, multiple stressors interacting synergistically, whereby the combined effects are greater than the sum of the individual (additive) effects, may lead to novel ecological responses (Crain et al. 2008; Jackson et al. 2016) or exceed critical ecological thresholds that result in fundamental state changes…
Overall, the combined effects of climate change on ocean and watershed processes are connected and poised to interact with each other. This is especially the case in tidal marshes, which are dynamic and structurally complex biogenic habitats that are shaped by tidal and fluvial processes (e.g., tides, surface water runoff, groundwater and marsh porewater exchange; Davis and Dalrymple 2011). Several scenarios suggest that multiple interacting stressors may result in marsh conversion to open water or mudflat (Fagherazzi 2013). For example, the co-occurrence of accelerating regional SLR with increasing frequencies and/or magnitudes of high amplitude “king” tides and storm surges may synergistically worsen flooding and eventually result in marsh drowning (Cayan et al. 2008; Marsooli et al. 2019; Dominicis et al. 2020).
Loss of coastal wetlands during China’s prolonged boom has contributed to a collapse in numbers of migratory birds in East Asia
Zhang Chun/ China Dialogue
October 20, 2015
Half of the 10 most important wetlands on the Pacific-East Asia route are in China, with Poyang Lake in Jiangxi the most crucial. When setting off south in autumn some birds fly direct to Australia or New Zealand, but on the arduous return trip north the vast majority will feed and rest in China’s wetlands. If these habitats are destroyed, they cannot feed properly and will be unable to continue.
Threats
Every year, 50 million birds of 492 different species migrate along this path, with 246 species stopping in China. Lei Guangchun, head of the Nature Reserve College at Beijing Forestry University, said that populations of over half those species are falling, and at least 27 of those are endangered – representing almost half of all the world’s endangered aquatic birds classified as being under threat.
Since the 1950s, China’s coast has lost over half of its temperate wetlands, almost three quarters of its mangrove forests and around 80% of its coral reefs – all habitats important for migratory birds. China’s environmentally-damaging plans to reclaim land continue unabated, however. With 246,900 hectares of land planned to be taken back from the sea by 2020, China’s aim of maintaining 800 million mu (53.6 million hectares) of wetlands won’t be met.
As with so many of the world’s natural resources, it is what is most valuable about coastal wetlands that presents some of the greatest threats to them:
The land-to-sea continuum is an emerging frontier in conservation biology, pointing out the ineffectiveness of separating land and sea into different components (Sloan et al. 2007). The intertidal zone constitutes the coastal environment where land and sea meet, i.e., the area between extreme high water springs (EHWSs) and extreme low water springs (ELWSs, Fig. 1). This zone provides numerous ecosystem goods and services; however, most of them are poorly understood (Barbier et al. 2011). In addition, ecosystems located in the intertidal zone are experiencing degradation and an accelerating loss of biodiversity, which might potentially affect ecosystem goods and services and human well-being…
The WIO [Western Indian Ocean] region refers to the African coastal states of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa together with the Indian Ocean island states of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, the Seychelles, and France represented by the islands of Mayotte, La Reunion, and Eparses Islands (UNEP 2007; UNEP/Nairobi Convention Secretariat and WIOMSA 2009; Fig. 2). The region covers tropical and subtropical conditions. The region has been well described by Coughanowr et al. (1995), but during the last two decades, the population has greatly increased and is now more widely distributed, which is increasing the pressure on the coastal zone and hence the intertidal zone (Shi and Singh 2003)…
The experts identified that the intertidal zone in the WIO hosts a wide range of important habitats, and the commonly mentioned ones were mangroves, seagrass meadows, coral reefs (surprising since coral reefs are normally subtidal), rocky shores, sandy areas, and reef flats. Table 2 shows the complete list of intertidal habitats mentioned. The experts also mentioned that the intertidal zone attracts many animal species, including invertebrates, fishes, birds, and reptiles as well as several migrating animal species. Furthermore, the intertidal zone was considered highly valuable for reasons such as tourism and recreation, the presence of seagrasses and mangroves improving water quality and protecting the shoreline, the presence of many edible invertebrates and fish, timber, nutrient cycling, and diversity maintenance…
A wide range of threats to the intertidal ecosystems in WIO was identified by the experts in the questionnaire and during the workshop encompassing all scales, from a global scale such as climate change to a local scale such as sand mining. In addition, they expressed a feeling that the amount of threats were overwhelming and difficult to manage. Several destructive fishing methods were mentioned such as “damage to seagrass beds from seine netting” and “drag-nets” or other destructive activities such as “mangrove clearance for aquaculture or rice farming”. Another comment was “lack of education and poverty as well as population growth”, thus including social aspects. The most commonly mentioned threats were pollution, overharvesting, habitat destruction, climate change, and overfishing…
A recent study by the Paulson Institute, a research institute founded by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, estimated that global investments that degrade nature exceed conservation efforts by $600 billion to $824 billion per year.
Natural capital accounting would require businesses and governments to calculate how human activity affects nature, much as they assess depreciation of buildings or machinery. Analyzed in this way, nature is a financial asset, and damage to it becomes a liability. This approach creates incentives to conserve natural resources and restore others that have been degraded or depleted.
The thin strip that lies at the edge of the land is home to more than a third of the world’s population:
Historically, cities have been located on coastlines because there are many transport, food and ecological benefits. Products - and therefore money - traditionally flows into countries through their ports. This has set a precedence for populations to naturally migrate towards coastal areas. Eight of the top ten largest cities in the world are located by the coast.
Top Ten Largest Cities:
- Tokyo, Japan (coastal)
- Mexico City, Mexico
- Mumbai, India (coastal)
- Sáo Paulo, Brazil
- New York City, USA (coastal)
- Shanghai, China (coastal)
- Lagos, Nigeria (coastal)
- Los Angeles, USA (coastal)
- Calcutta, India (coastal)
- Buenos Aires, Argentina (coastal)
In 1999 the world population hit six billion people -- nearly tripling in one century. In 2010, the global population surpassed over 6.8 billion and on course to increase to ten billion by 2030. And, in a historic turning point, there are more urban than rural dwellers.
44 % of the world's population (more people than inhabited the entire globe in 1950) live within 150 kilometers of the coast. In 2001 over half the world's population lived within 200km of a coastline. The rate of population growth in coastal areas is accelerating and increasing tourism adds to pressure on the environment.
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