Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.
Conceptual relationships among concepts involved in global change and coastal marine
biodiversity. More links among the different concepts may be built, and many more concepts
may be linked to the ones depicted here; the ones chosen are treated in the text. Boxes include
biological components of ecosystems, physico-chemical forcings and processes, and ecological
processes, that are affected in their rates or intensity by global change, with an ultimate effect
on coastal biodiversity.
use, implying that at this stage it is important to take measures to regulate
or mitigate the impacts of global change in the coastal environment.
With this in mind we would like to close this chapter with some fi nal
remarks and ideas for the future. From what we have discussed, we can
state that we are still far from reaching conclusive remarks on most of the
global change threats on coastal areas. The best we can do, is try to draw
similarities and congruencies in patterns of change, keeping in mind that
coastal areas are interconnected and, at the longest time scales, the problems
are certainly regional and fi nally global (Steele 1998).
There are pressing issues requiring stronger inclusion of science in ocean
governance (Boesch 1999) in a globalized context; after all marine ecosystems
rarely coincide with national boundaries and are affected by international
economic, social and legal decisions, and therefore international agreement
on policies and action is needed (Holdgate 1994).
Even though some gaps in knowledge still remain, the scientific
community has gathered a body of evidence large and consistent enough
