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Cambridge Books Online

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Aquatic Ecosystems
Trends and Global Prospects
Edited by Nicholas V. C. Polunin
Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511751790
Online ISBN: 9780511751790
Hardback ISBN: 9780521833271
Chapter
PART IV - COASTAL WETLANDS pp. 155-156
Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511751790.015
Cambridge University Press
Part IV
Coastal wetlands
155
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511751790.015
Cambridge Books Online Cambridge University Press, 2011
The coastal wetlands constituted by saltmarshes, man-
groves and estuaries rank among the most productive,
dynamic and ecologically important of coastal environ-
ments. Each of them provides nursery, feeding and refuge
functions for many animal species of human importance.
Coastal wetlands also inuence environmental quality
along the landriversea continuum, such as biogeo-
chemical cycling, transformation of nutrients and ltering
of contaminants. The three ecosystem types dealt with in
this part overlap to some extent; for example, many estu-
aries are bordered by luxuriant saltmarsh (particularly
temperate waters) or mangrove (tropical and subtropical
waters) vegetation.
Saltmarshes consist of grasses, herbs and low
woody vascular plants on intertidal shores worldwide, in
estuarine, barrier-island and open-coastal environments
(Chapter 11). The longevity of this type of ecosystem is
related to changes in relative sea level, tidal range and its
capacity to accrete sediment. Mangroves, the only woody
halophytes found at the conuence of land and sea, cover
c.181 000 km
2
of coastline worldwide, and occur in some-
what distinct estuarine, deltaic and marine formations
(Chapter 12). Commercially important, especially as
sources of timber and fuel, mangrove forests have been
widely degraded and in many areas replaced by alternative
land uses such as aquaculture. Based on geomorphology,
estuaries vary in form between drowned river-valley, bar-
built, fjord-type and tectonic types (Chapter 13). As major
conduits of runoff and waste from the land, and access
points to river systems for transport and other purposes,
estuaries are as vulnerable as the other wetlands to eco-
nomic development and human impacts.
156 PART I V
Downloaded from Cambridge Books Online by IP 117.211.87.42 on Mon Nov 28 07:47:30 GMT 2011.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511751790.015
Cambridge Books Online Cambridge University Press, 2011

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