{"id":1065,"date":"2014-05-28T22:20:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T12:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2014-05-28T22:20:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T12:20:56","slug":"coastal-wetlands-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=1065","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Wetlands of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"scott\"<\/a>Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"<\/p>\n

David B Scott, Jennifer Frail-Gauthier and Petra J Mudies. 2014. Coastal Wetlands of the World: Geology, Ecology, Distribution and Applications. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 1 107 62825 0<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Coastal wetlands (read – salt marshes and mangroves) have been neglected, or worse, for decades. They are seen as something stopping a clear view of the sea or making it difficult to dredge a harbour or any number of other excuses rather than see them for the value they possess. Ecologists have known them for the key areas they are in terms of coastal ecology but they haven’t really caught the attention of the general public until recently. It took the force of the “Boxing Day Tsunami<\/a>” to bring it home to many: areas that had lost mangrove cover were far worse hit than those who had retained them. This was followed by a few studies but the main idea was there – these “waste areas” had value. So, we can see the human use of the places. What about wildlife? The same forces that built oceanside houses or factories etc. were those that cleared the land in the first place, depriving wildlife of a refuge. The extent to which happened, created sufficient alarm to have the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands<\/a> brought in. Those significant areas left<\/a> are slowly being protected. What is required is a text that explains all the facets of wetland biogeography as well as the threats facing these places, which is where this text comes in.<\/p>\n

The aim of the authors is to produce a multi-disciplinary book covering all the major facets of wetland geography and ecology alongside a treatment of all major wetland areas. Leaving aside an introduction that outlines the directions of the text, we start with the physical aspects of wetlands. Occurring at the interface between land and sea, coastal wetlands are high-energy environments. They are faced with daily inundations from the sea with concomitant changes of salt and oxygen levels as well as water. High latitude areas tend to be salt marsh: equatorial ones, mangroves. Given this variety, it’s understandable that we start with definitions, locations and formation – we need to know what we are dealing with and where it is. So far, we just have a basic outline. Subsequent chapters deal in far greater depth with the ideas raised here, starting with basic ecology. Coastal wetlands are unique places in that they grow upwards, by virtue of sedimentation, and seaward as the sediments creates more dry areas. Not surprisingly, the first plant colonisers tend to be mat-habit grasses. To complete this overview, we consider physical zones and biological diversity. An even briefer review adds to the same picture with mangroves. The next chapter focusses on animals and it is here that the unique contribution of wetlands is obvious. Being one of the key global ecotones, it has some of the characteristics of both creating a unique assemblage of organisms from the microscopic foraminifera to the very macroscopic bald eagle. Rather than continue with the natural theme, the text changes to look at human pressure on the areas. It’s clear that these areas are in places ideal for human expansion (near transport, flat, easy to work etc.) and we are given an overview of the myriad ways we impact these places. We return to the environment with a brief overview of climate and biogeography, key determinants of coastal ecology.<\/p>\n

A substantial part of the text is given over, in five chapters, to the world’s wetland distribution, unusually, covering all wetland areas in at least some depth. This gives an excellent overview of all globally significant areas which serves two uses. The first is that it brings to peoples’ attention the great variety and physical distribution of coastal wetlands and, secondly, that it allows a far better comparison between areas than is seen commonly in many texts where just a few prime sites are investigated. Each chapter starts with a brief abstract of key points and some description of the locations and main properties. The bulk of the chapter is then given over to a region-by-region description of wetlands, often highlighting key features unique to the place and some of the key human threats. To balance this, each region has its gems and these are often described in detail from the biodiversity of the Mekong, Mississippi and Nile deltas to the tidal power of the Bay of Fundy.<\/p>\n

We return to the more generalised topics looking at the geography and biology of the areas. Mangroves are not just good for protecting coasts, they are on the front-line, along with salt marshes, in the examination of seismic activity evidence so we can predict future disasters more accurately (and learn more about past events). To be fair, this is not so much a biological issue as a geological one – most coastlines are developed on or near faults so we can study, and therefore predict, changes in seismic and ecological activity. As we move on, the topics change from the strictly ecological and geographical towards the applied side. The first chapter in this line looks at the ways in which coastal wetlands can be used for conservation and agriculture. Several lines of inquiry have been described. The early use of these areas was to capture their productivity for seafood and medicine. Belatedly, we acknowledge the damage done to these unique areas and in many parts of the world, experiments are continuing with an aim to restore former wetlands and improve existing ones. Many examples at both lab and field scale are described.<\/p>\n

The final chapter sums up the key points covered in the text and suggests ways forward. Despite the geographical and ecological diversity of both the wetlands and their treatment in this book, five themes emerge which sum up current ideas on these unique areas. Firstly, they need space – wetlands’ unique physiological characteristics cannot be confined. Secondly, their sheer diversity (often hidden because they share superficial similarities) makes them valuable biological resources and ecosystem services. Thirdly, that the idea of wetland = wasteland is disappearing fast, due no doubt, to the continued efforts of researchers. Fourthly, they are archives of paleogeographic data which can be used in a number of fields from seismology to climate change. Finally, they have local value – not least in protection form tsunamis (which is where we came in!).<\/p>\n

The preface argues that this text has a comprehensive coverage rarely seen elsewhere. Given that every continent (except Antarctica) has a mention somewhere with all major wetlands described, this is one claim easy to prove. It follows this with succinct outlines of key ecological and geographical processes backed by a very impressive range of references, again proving their case. What is not mentioned, and should be, is that in producing this book they have summarised a huge amount of information but made it readable. In so many texts aiming for this coverage, there are gaps in key areas or the summaries show a rougher editing than one might have liked. The writing here just flows; it is an example of the best in science writing and so should be used both as a excellent reference for wetland ecosystems and a showcase for good prose. It is hard to see which of these is the rarer or more important but the authors are to be congratulated for achieving both. As such, this book deserves the widest readership.<\/p>\n

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Rating: David B Scott, Jennifer Frail-Gauthier and Petra J Mudies. 2014. Coastal Wetlands of the World: Geology, Ecology, Distribution and Applications. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 1 107 62825 0 Coastal wetlands (read – salt marshes and mangroves) have been neglected, or worse, for decades. They are seen as something stopping a clear view of the sea or making it difficult to dredge a harbour or any number of other excuses rather than see them for the value they possess. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[30,45,37,33,288,287],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-biogeography","tag-ecology","tag-human-impact","tag-mangroves","tag-salt-marshes","tag-wetlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}