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especially for sandy and gravelly sediments. Field-
based work is needed to document these links.
Overall, we can anticipate increasing anthro-
pogenic influences upon some parts of shelf
sedimentary systems, although remaining over-
all at a low level for most shelves. Case studies
are required that describe the sedimentary con-
sequences of human intervention over sufficiently
long time-scales to allow the design of reliable
and scientifically credible indicators of change.
For some areas and/or types of human activity,
environmental monitoring data of good quality
will be available, including time-series data.
Two fundamental and linked questions remain:
How do we distinguish anthropogenic impacts
from natural variation, and assuming that we
can do this, how do we then ascribe a significance
to any differences? These questions are the
focus of much ongoing and future research, in
the scientific, management and socio-economic
spheres.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was funded by the UK Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs con-
tract numbers A1225 and E3203.
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