Coastal Areas Of World Research Articles

La reinvención de la costa. Diseñando paisajes resilientes

We are in a post-ecological era in which nature, as a distinct archetype of the human, no longer exists. An era known as the `Anthropocene´, in which global warming commonly known as climate change, is for many, the most emblematic crisis. A moment therefore, of personal and global responsibility, in which imagination and action become necessary. An imagination nourished by the creativity inscribed in ecology, to produce molded strategic scenarios and tactical designs capable of catalyzing cultural and physical processes for climate change adaptation. In this global context, world coastal areas are one of the most densely populated territories where the dynamic cascading effects of climate change are more intense. For that reason, a coast free from the metaphysical concept of a static nature that needs to be protected is claimed, while reinventing itself by design is proposed. This reinvention entails their understanding as complex adaptive systems. It involves, on one hand, the reconfiguration of the conceptual framework of coastal planning and design and, on the other, the creation of a typological and technological toolbox for the design of resilient coastal landscapes.

Improved monitoring of phytoplankton bloom dynamics in a Norwegian fjord by integrating satellite data, pigment analysis, and Ferrybox data with a coastal observation network

Monitoring of the coastal environment is vitally important as these areas are of economic value and at the same time highly exposed to anthropogenic influence, in addition to variation of environmental variables. In this paper we show how the combination of bio-optical data from satellites, analysis of water samples, and a ship-mounted automatic flow-through sensor system (Ferrybox) can be used to detect and monitor phytoplankton blooms both spatially and temporally. Chlorophyll a (Chl a) data and turbidity from Ferrybox are combined with remotely sensed Chl a and total suspended matter from the MERIS instrument aboard the satellite ENVISAT (ENVIronmental SATellite) European Space Agency. Data from phytoplankton speciation and enumeration obtained by a national coastal observation network consisting of fish farms and the Norwegian Food Safety Authority are supplemented with data on phytoplankton pigments. All the data sets are then integrated in order to describe phytoplankton bloom dynamics in a Norwegian fjord over a growth season, with particular focus on Emiliania huxleyi. The approach represents a case example of how coastal environmental monitoring can be improved with existing instrument platforms. The objectives of the paper is to present the operative phytoplankton monitoring scheme in Norway, and to present an improved model of how such a scheme can be designed for a large part of the world's coastal areas.

Eleven polymorphic simple sequence repeat markers from expressed sequence tags of Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas EST database

Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) is widely distributed in coastal areas of world. We developed and evaluated simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers from expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of C. gigas and to amplify EST-SSR in C. gigas. Characteristics of 11 EST-SSR loci were investigated using 45 C. gigas individuals. The number of alleles per locus ranged from two to thirteen. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from 0.0889 to 0.7333 and the expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from 0.0859 to 0.8981. Because of their high level of polymorphism, our 11 single-locus EST-SSR markers will be valuable tools for research on mating system, population genetics and systemic evolution of oyster in the future.

Human Impacts on Land Cover and Water Balances in a Coastal Mediterranean County

We analyzed the effects of changes in land cover on the water balance in Spain's Marina Baixa County, on the Mediterranean coast. To reveal how different land management strategies have affected the area's environment, four municipalities within the same catchment were studied: Benidorm, Callosa d'en Sarrià, Beniardà, and Guadalest. In the municipalities of Callosa and Benidorm, the proportion of the area covered by woodland declined by 4.2% and 30.2%, respectively, and woodland was replaced by agriculture and urban development. The abandonment of farmland produced a 17% increase in the proportion of the area covered by vegetation in Guadalest and Beniardá, where frequent forest fires have exacerbated a decrease in the area of pine woodland. Tourism development in Benidorm has been accompanied by an increase in the transportation infrastructure and by an expansion of areas with an impermeable surface, with the lowest level of infiltration into the aquifer system. These changes have generated a net water deficit in Callosa and Benidorm of more than 6 Mm(3)/year, creating a high demand for water imported from other municipalities (Guadalest and Beniardá) or from outside of the county to maintain the sustainability of the current water management strategies. The Marina Baixa case study is representative of many of the world's coastal areas that are undergoing rapid urban development based on an inappropriate understanding of human progress based mainly on economic development and thus provides insights into water management in other areas.

Trace Metals in Surface Seawaters and Mussels around the Dokdo, Korea

Trace metals were investigated for the surface seawaters and mussels collected in adjacent sea to the Dokdo during 1999-2000. This study reports the temporal and spatial distributions of trace metals in seawaters and mussels of the Dokdo coastal areas. Clean technique for trace metal analyses was employed in all manipulations including the sampling and pretreatment procedures. The concentrations of dissolved Cu, Cd and Pb in the surface seawaters were similar to those of the previous data in the East Sea. Contents of particulate Al, Fe, Mn and Co were influenced by input of detrital materials from the Dokdo. The average EFs of particulate metals were to the order of Cd > Zn > Pb > Cu > Ni > Mn > Co > Fe, and the high values in Cd and Zn may be closely related to the preferential uptake of biogenic particles. With the exception of Cd, all metal contents in the mussels were in the same ranges with those from other world coastal areas. The Cd accumulation factor of mussel/seawater in this study was abnormally much higher than previous data from the Korean coasts.

Occurrence of Organotin Compounds in Water, Sediments and Mollusca in Estuarine Systems in the Southwest of Spain

Six organotin species – tributyltin (TBT), dibutyltin (DBT), monobutyltin (MBT), triphenyltin (TPT), diphenyltin (DPT) andmonophenyltin (MPT) – have been determined in seawater (255 samples), sediments (85 samples) and bivalves (558 samples) collected at seventeen locations in the southwest of Spain in five occasions between May 1992 and August 1994. No phenyltinspecies were found but butyltin species were present in all the stations. The TBT concentrations ranged between 23 and 1500 ng g-1 Sn in biota, from less than 0.6 to 160 ng g-1 Sn in sediments and from less than 0.5 to 31 ng L-1 Sn in water, with the highest values closely related with boating activity and decreasing according to the distance from the potential sources. For biota and water, a consistent seasonal pattern of fluctuation of TBT concentrations was evident, with the highest values found in spring and summer except for a fishing harbour. A slow decreaseof TBT concentration was observed between 1992 and 1994. Percentages of DBT and MBT in biota (22±7 and 13±6,respectively) were lower than those in water (33±10 and 31±15, respectively) and sediments (48±16 and 25±16, respectively). Sediment-water partition coefficients for TBT were 240–65 000 and bioconcentration factors 17 000–350 000. This article discusses the significance of the pollution in our study area in comparison with other world coastal areas.