Lagoons and Coastal Wetlands in the Global Change Context: Impact and Management Issues

This interdisciplinary volume comprehensively reviews recent developments in wetland science and global change. The aim is to identify gaps, problems and successes in the integration of scientific issues into lagoon and coastal wetland management. The major strength of this volume is that it integrates several fields of research including climatology, hydrology, geomorphology, ecology and biology. By adopting such a structure, the reader is provided with an updated insight of impacts, changes and alteration of coastal lagoons and wetlands deriving from local anthropogenic pressures and global processes, e.g. coastal erosion, sea level rise, flooding and biological invasions. The recent evolution of lagoons and coastal wetlands is analysed, including population and community dynamics, biogeochemical processes and pollution, key biological elements and related indicators. Significant issues, as flooding and ecological risk assessment, are framed into coastal dynamics considering local specific and more general situations. Lagoons and wetlands are also analysed as sentinel ecosystems for developing coastal observations of global change. This book will therefore provide a reference work for wetland scientists, as well as for policy and decision makers involved in coastal lagoons and wetlands management.