Aquatic Ecosystems: Trends and Global Prospects

✍ Scribed by Nicholas V. C. Polunin (editor)

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 499
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Concern about future supplies of fresh water to society, to meet the full range of human needs, now comes very high on the priority list of global societal issues. An overarching issue, which this book addresses, is whether global climate change is a dominant driver of change in the structure and function of all natural water-based ecosystems, or whether direct human population growth and accelerated consumption are playing an equal or greater role. This book divides the whole aquatic realm into 21 ecosystems, from those on land (both saline and fresh water) to those of the open and deep oceans. It draws on the understanding of leading ecologists to summarize the state and likely condition by the year 2025 of each of the ecosystems. Written for academic researchers and environmental professionals, the aim is to put the climate change debate into a broader context as a basis for conservation science and planning.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Frontmatter......Page 2
Contents......Page 6
List of contributors......Page 8
Preface......Page 16
Acknowledgements......Page 17
1 - INTRODUCTION: Climate, people, fisheries and aquatic ecosystems......Page 18
PART I - FLOWING WATERS......Page 34
2 - Prospects for streams and rivers: an ecological perspective......Page 36
3 - Groundwater ecosystems: human impacts and future management......Page 47
4 - Flood plains: critically threatened ecosystems......Page 62
PART II - STILL WATERS......Page 80
5 - The future of small lakes and ponds......Page 82
6 - Environmental trends and potential future states of large freshwater lakes......Page 98
7 - Salt lakes: values, threats and future......Page 111
PART III - FRESHWATER WETLANDS......Page 128
8 - The future of cool temperate peatlands......Page 130
9 - Temperate freshwater wetlands: response to gradients in moisture regime, human alterations and economic status......Page 144
10 - Present state and future of tropical wetlands......Page 158
PART IV - COASTAL WETLANDS......Page 172
11 - Saltmarsh......Page 174
12 - Future of mangrove ecosystems to 2025......Page 189
13 - Environmental future of estuaries......Page 205
PART V - ROCKY SHORES......Page 224
14 - Rocky intertidal shores: prognosis for the future......Page 226
15 - Current status and future trends in kelp forest ecosystems......Page 243
16 - Projecting the current trajectory for coral reefs......Page 259
PART VI - SOFT SHORES......Page 278
17 - Sandy shores of the near future......Page 280
18 - Seagrass ecosystems: their global status and prospects......Page 298
19 - Continental-shelf benthic ecosystems: prospects for an improved environmental future......Page 312
PART VII - VAST MARINE SYSTEMS......Page 326
20 - The marine pelagic ecosystem: perspectives on humanity's role in the future......Page 328
21 - Polar and ice-edge marine systems......Page 336
22 - The near future of the deep-sea floor ecosystems......Page 351
PART VIII - SYNTHESIS......Page 368
23 - Trends and global prospects of the Earth's aquatic ecosystems......Page 370
References......Page 383
Index......Page 490