Ecological Connectivity among Tropical Coastal Ecosystems
Mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and coral reefs are circumtropical ecosystems that are highly productive, and provide many important biological functions and economic services. These ecosystems cover large surface areas in the shallow tropical coastal se
- PDF / 13,290,820 Bytes
- 617 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 22 Downloads / 258 Views
Ivan Nagelkerken Editor
Ecological Connectivity among Tropical Coastal Ecosystems
123
Editor Ivan Nagelkerken Radboud University Nijmegen Faculty of Science Department of Animal Ecology and Ecophysiology P.O. Box 9010 6500 GL Nijmegen the Netherlands [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-2405-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-2406-0 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2406-0 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009926883 c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover photo: Coastline of Bawi Island (Zanzibar, Tanzania) with exposed reef at low tide. Photo by Martijn Dorenbosch Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Foreword
The scale of effects of human activities on our ecosystem services in the past half century has increased to the level where we are now compelled to consider interactions among complex systems for responsible management of our resources. Human activities have been causing global effects on climate, the abundance and distribution of nutrients, and the sea level and chemistry of the oceans. There have been a number of books in the past half century on the ecology and management of coral reefs, of mangroves, and of seagrass meadows as separate systems. This book on ‘Ecological connectivity among tropical coastal ecosystems’ is timely because it is focused on providing understanding of the higher level of interactions between these systems. Ivan Nagelkerken has spent his career determining the extent and complexities of population connectivities of fishes among tropical coastal habitats. He now takes on the role of editor to pull together biogeochemical, ecological, and population linkages among coastal habitats and guiding us to conclusions for management policies and socioeconomic implications. The capacity of systems for self-sustainability can increase with diversity at all levels. A more diverse genotype provides a greater potential capacity for a species to adapt to climate change and other large-scale effects of human activities. A greater species diversity of primary producers, framework constructing species, herbivores, and predators provide potential capacity for a habitat or ecosystem to accommodate eutrophication and other effects of human activities. We must now include consideration of the diversity of interactions among habitats. Coral reefs protect inshore habitats from wave action while mangroves can buffer coral reefs from terrestrial input of sediment and other pollutants, and so while the coastal habitats can exist in isolation, they are probably more resilient to large-scale chang
Data Loading...
