Coastal lagoons in focus: Their environmental and socioeconomic importance
Abstract
Many of our old assumptions concerning coastal lagoons, such as their ecological simplicity and uniformity, and the processes that affect their functioning, are fading as our knowledge and understanding of their ecological complexity increase and their heterogeneity becomes more evident (Pérez-Ruzafa et al., 2019a). These properties are linked to their capacity to contribute to one of the highest biological productivity systems known among marine ecosystems, accompanied by their high resistance and resilience in the face of environmental and anthropogenic pressures. All this translates into an important provision of ecosystem services and social goods. However, we are still far from assessing their importance in management policies and regulations, for example those of the European Union. This is probably due to our poor understanding of the relationship between human activities that exploit these goods, the geomorphological and environmental changes that such activities produce and their consequences for the hydrographical and ecological processes that allow the said resources and services in the beginning.
- Publication:
-
Journal for Nature Conservation
- Pub Date:
- 2020
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jnc.2020.125886
- Bibcode:
- 2020JNatC..5725886P