Coastal ecosystems are multidisciplinary research topics encompassing the structure, function, and dynamics of biological communities and physical environments at the land–sea interface, including salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass meadows, tidal flats, estuaries, rocky shores, and coastal dunes. Scientific study focuses on biogeochemical cycles, primary productivity, trophic interactions, sediment transport, and hydrodynamic forcing (tides, waves, currents) that shape habitat distribution and resilience. Research also examines nutrient loading, contaminant fate, habitat fragmentation, and climate-driven stressors such as sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and warming, often integrating remote sensing, numerical modeling, and long-term ecological monitoring to quantify ecosystem services and assess vulnerability to anthropogenic impacts.
Mangrove habitats across the oil-rich Gulf region are facing significant threats despite ongoing efforts to conserve these salt-tolerant coastal forests, locally valued for their medicinal properties, ecological importance, ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2026
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28
Rivers deliver freshwater, nutrients, and carbon to Earth's oceans, influencing the chemistry of coastal seawater worldwide. Notably, a river's alkalinity and the levels of dissolved inorganic carbon it brings to the sea ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 12, 2026
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14
In recent decades, mangroves along the Atlantic coast of North America have expanded into areas traditionally dominated by salt marshes. This shift shows that climate change is already reshaping temperate coastal ecosystems, ...
Ecology
Jan 7, 2026
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18
Environmentalists are suing the federal government over what they say is a failure to protect the horseshoe crab, a prehistoric-looking species that is important to the survival of shore birds in South Carolina and other ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 6, 2026
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90
The expansive, dense eelgrass beds that line much of the U.S. coastline provide invaluable habitat and other services to support rich coastal ecosystems.
Ecology
Dec 17, 2025
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9
Salt marshes, those critical habitats that protect coastal towns from flooding, store massive amounts of blue carbon, support fisheries and play a key role in ecological resilience, are struggling to survive as oceans rise ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 16, 2025
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28
As fishery management practices struggle to keep up with warming waters, the insights of local lobstermen provide an invaluable understanding of changing dynamics, new research shows.
Ecology
Dec 10, 2025
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15
One of the most comprehensive surveys to date of shark and other large predator fish in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) ocean finds that remote marine protected areas (MPAs)—including the Galapagos, Malpelo, Clipperton, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 26, 2025
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225
An innovative alternative to concrete could enable important coastal restoration work to take place. The material Xiriton, made with local grass species and seawater, captures CO2 instead of emitting it, as conventional concrete ...
Ecology
Nov 24, 2025
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179
As global efforts intensify around restoring coastal wetlands to curb climate change, a new JCU-led study published in Reviews of Geophysics is the first to link wetland restoration and carbon cycling with groundwater dynamics, ...
Earth Sciences
Nov 20, 2025
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19
