Impacts of stormwater on coastal ecosystems: the need to match the scales of management objectives and solutions.

ABSTRACT: Despite their limited area relative to the global ocean, coastal zones-the regions where land meets the sea-play a disproportionately important role in generating ecosystem services. However, coastal ecosystems are under increasing pressure from human populations. In particular, urban stormwater is an increasingly important threat to the integrity of coastal systems. Urban catchments exhibit altered flow regimes that impact ecosystem processes and coastal foodwebs. In addition, urban stormwater contains complex and unpredictable mixtures of chemicals that result in a multitude of lethal and sublethal impacts on species in coastal systems. Along the western coast of the United States, we estimate that hundreds of billions of kilograms of suspended solids flow off land surfaces and enter the

SUBMITTER: Levin PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7662197 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature