On the critical issues of land-ocean interactions in coastal zones

Abstract

Land-ocean interactions in coastal zones comprise a broad research topic in global change science that links the fundamental questions of marine sciences to the sustainability of socio-economics. In the present study, critical issues in land-ocean interactions were addressed based on recent research progress and a literature review. Specifically, the exchange between open boundary and coastal systems, loss of chemical elements from watersheds, coastal eutrophication and harmful algal blooms, hypoxia and dead zones, source vs sink of sediments in coastal environments, feedback to other compartments of the Earth system, sea level rise and its impact on economics and human society, and human activities in the coastal region were investigated. Although there are other critical issues of land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone, they were not dealt with in this study because of limited knowledge and research experience by the author.