Coasts

From Sustainable Community Action

Coasts global and by place Portal - images - A-Z UK - news - diary - images - A-Z / USA

Contents 1 Action Ideas 2 Why it matters 2.1 Environmental importance 3 Global News 4 Random facts 5 Related 6 External links 6.1 Blogs

[edit] Action Ideas

• Beach clean ups

[edit] Why it matters

(introductory para needed)

[edit] Environmental importance

The coast and its adjacent areas on and off shore is an important part of a local ecosystem as the mixture of fresh water and salt water in estuaries provides many nutrients for marine life. Salt marshes and beaches also support a diversity of plants, animals, and insects crucial to the food chain.

Like the ocean which shapes them, coasts are a dynamic environment with constant change. The earth's natural processes, particularly sea level rise, waves and various weather phenomena, have resulted in the erosion, accretion and reshaping of coasts as well as flooding and creation of continental shelves and drowned river valleys (rias).

[edit] Global News

2009

• Coastal ‘carbon sinks’ - such as tidal salt marshes, seagrass meadows, kelp forests and mangroves – shrinking faster than Amazon forests, 17 November ^[1]

• Living in Barbados reports on Barbados Clean-Up Day, when volunteers collected garbage from the island's beaches, September 21 ^[2]

2005

• "Ecosystem changes will continue to worsen, global development goals at risk", March 30 2005

[edit] Random facts

• Research shows that 634 million people - one tenth of the global population - live in coastal areas that lie within just ten metres above sea level. International Institute for Environment and Development, March 28 2007 / Climate change global news

[edit] Related

SCA Ocean Walking	Wikipedia Coast W Coral reef W Current sea level rise W	Wikisphere Coastal wiki, for adding or editing articles an authorisation is required. Copyright status of content may not be easy to see.

[edit] External links

• The Coral Reef Alliance

[edit] Blogs

• Coral Bones

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References

1. ↑ Natural England, 17 November 2009
2. ↑ Living in Barbados, September 21, 2009