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CLASSIFYING COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS: HISTORICAL PESPECTIVE AND CURRENT NECESSITY
Citation:
Kurtz, J C., N E. Detenbeck, V D. Engle, K Ho, R Burgess, K T. Perez, AND D Campbell. CLASSIFYING COASTAL ENVIRONMENTS: HISTORICAL PESPECTIVE AND CURRENT NECESSITY. Presented at Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Seattle, WA, Sep. 14-18, 2003.
Description:
Coastal environments are particularly complex due to variations in geology and upstream watersheds, and are subject to dynamic spatial and temporal changes. Their diverse characteristics result in wide variations in response to environmental stressors such as nutrient over-enrichment, habitat alteration and toxin exposure. Numerous classifications systems have been developed to group systems with similar characteristics, past efforts focusing on geomorphology, hydrodynamics or taxonomy rather than on system response or susceptibility to stressors.
The current necessity for setting water quality criteria and total maximum daily loadings for protection of the Nation's waters requires an understanding of stressor impacts on coastal environments. Increasing human activity near coastal waters creates the need for better prediction of system susceptibility for adequate management of resources. NOAA proposed an approach based on susceptibility of near coastal waters to nutrient discharges taking stressor considerations a step forward. EPA has developed a conceptual model for a classification system based on stressor-response that includes considerations of retention time, processing capacity, and modifying factors in coastal ecosystems.