About this Research Topic

Background

Coastal areas are vulnerable to both extreme weather events related to climate change and multiple anthropogenic impacts due to the development of human socio-economics. It has been acknowledged that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, river flood, storm surge and marine heatwaves have been increasing. These will interact with the diverse coastal ocean processes, such as waves, tides, ocean currents, and river runoffs, at different temporal and spatial scales; and furthermore, change the coastal sediment dynamics and cycling of biogenic elements. Whether extreme weather events will leave their “footprint” on the evolution of the coastal ecological environment is still unknown. On the other hand, coastal areas host the development of human socio-economics, and suffer multiple pressures from different human activities, such as land reclamation, damming, marine culture, exhaust gas and wastewater emission, garbage and microplastics. The resilience of coastal areas has been compromised by the increased human activities, and furthermore, the recovery time will be prolonged after the impulsive attack of intensified extreme weather events. All these interactions may result in serious consequences on coastal oceans globally.

The interactive effects and nonlinear dynamics of extreme weather events and intensive human activities on coastal hydrodynamics, sedimentary dynamics, and ecological dynamics need to be investigated. To understand that, continuous, regular, and sustainable coastal monitoring actions and studies are required. High-performance numerical modeling and deep learning are also required to predict and quantitatively analyze both the short-term changes and long-term evolution of the coastal environment. To address the possible driving forces of evolution, resilience, and even regime shifts in coastal systems, it is necessary to find out how the extreme weather events work on the human-modified coastal ocean circulation and transport patterns.

This research topic will focus on the role of extreme weather events in both short-term changes and long-term evolution of coastal ocean process, including but not limited to hydrodynamics, sediment transport, biogenic elements cycling, hypoxia, water quality, and ecological process, where possible causes of either local or global character are analyzed. Human activities should also be put in the context which is currently the greatest pressure on our coasts. Such a situation highlights the advanced understanding of the interaction between extreme weather events and human activities by incorporating an eco-evolutionary perspective. Measures to enhance the resilience of coasts are also interested, which will bring experience from a regional scale to a global scale. In this sense, it calls for original and novel studies on any of the following research topics:

• Response of coastal hydro-, sedimentary, and ecological dynamics to extreme weather events
• Multiple anthropogenic impacts on hydrodynamic, sedimentary, and ecological processes
• Interaction between extreme weather events and human activities on coastal eco-environment evolution-related processes
• Long-term management plans aimed at mitigating natural disasters and restoring coasts

Keywords: extreme weather event, anthropogenic impact, coastal hydrodynamics, sedimentary dynamics, biogeochemical process, coastal management

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