The Highest Global Concentrations and Increased Abundance of Oceanic Plastic Debris in the North Pacific: Evidence from Seabirds

Abstract

This 305-page book, entitled ''Changing Land Use Patterns in the Coastal Zone: Managing Environmental Quality in Rapidly Developing Regions'', is part of the ''Springer Series on Environmental Management'', and this book provides a multidisciplinary guide to the assessment and management of environmental impacts caused by development. This volume contains 11 individually-authored chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction, discussing the effects of changing land use patterns on marine resources and setting a research agenda to facilitate management. The remaining chapters are divided among 3 major parts. Part I of the book considers trends in coastal population growth, and contains chapters 2-4. These 3 chapters individually discuss trends in land use policy and development in the coastal southeast, predicting trajectories of urban growth in the coastal southeast, and urban typology and estuarine biodiversity in rapidly developing coastal watersheds. Coastal hydrology and geochemistry is the focus of part II, which contains chapters 5-8. Topics covered in these 4 chapters include: the relationship of hydrodynamics to morphology in tidal creek and salt marsh systems in South Carolina and Georgia; the role of tidal wetlands in estuarine nutrient cycling; evaluating the potential importance of groundwater-derived carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus inputs to South Carolina and Georgia coastal ecosystems; and oxygen, carbon dioxide, and estuarine condition. Part III of the book focuses on the contaminants and their effects, and contains chapters 9-11, inclusive. These 3 chapters discuss chemical contaminants entering estuaries in the South Atlantic Bight as a result of current and past land use, models of coastal stress, and alternatives to coliform bacteria as indicators of human impact on coastal ecosystems. The final chapter is followed by an afterword on managing coastal urbanization and development in the twenty-first century, and the need for a new paradigm. The afterword is followed by an index. The text is written in English. Each chapter is internally structured into more specific sections within the chapter scope and each chapter is independently referenced. The book is illustrated with numerous illustrations and figures, and includes a list of the contributors and their respective institutions. Functioning both as a practical guide, accessible to nonscientists, and as a rigorous scientific source book, this reference will be useful to ecologists, urban and regional planners, resource managers, policymakers, and students.