About this Research Topic
Human health and wellbeing cannot be sustained without proper ecosystem functioning and high biodiversity is essential to maintain such functioning. Worldwide, unsustainable exploitation of natural resources by a growing human population has imposed serious pressures on ecosystem integrity. To change the tide, the United Nations declared the current decade as the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, with the aim of “supporting and scaling up efforts to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide”. Large-scale active ecosystem restoration actions will be needed to achieve these ambitious aims. Whereas methodologies for systemic restoration of terrestrial ecosystems have been established, marine ecosystem restoration is still a young field of science, although rapidly emerging.
This Research Topic proposal aims to provide a platform for the growing number of marine scientists involved in marine ecosystem restoration. The Research Topic will focus on coastal ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass beds, kelp forests, shellfish reefs and coral reefs, but will also welcome studies on nearshore environments such as shelf seas, Mediterranean coralligenous habitats and mesophotic reefs.
The Research Topic will call for reviews, research manuscripts and position papers on a wide range of aspects related to coastal marine ecosystem restoration. Manuscripts may consider active restoration methods and long-term monitoring of restoration actions, but also molecular techniques (for example for biodiversity assessments), perspectives on shifting baselines, effects of climate change on restoration success, and indicators of the recovery of the ecosystems after restoration, including aspects related to the recovery of ecosystem services.
Although the primary focus of the Research Topic is on restoration biology, manuscripts may include socio-economic aspects related to the restoration of coastal ecosystems (socio-ecological systems approach). Also, we will welcome papers that show unsuccessful approaches!
This Research Topic proposal aims to provide a platform for the growing number of marine scientists involved in marine ecosystem restoration. The Research Topic will focus on coastal ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass beds, kelp forests, shellfish reefs and coral reefs, but will also welcome studies on nearshore environments such as shelf seas, Mediterranean coralligenous habitats and mesophotic reefs.
The Research Topic will call for reviews, research manuscripts and position papers on a wide range of aspects related to coastal marine ecosystem restoration. Manuscripts may consider active restoration methods and long-term monitoring of restoration actions, but also molecular techniques (for example for biodiversity assessments), perspectives on shifting baselines, effects of climate change on restoration success, and indicators of the recovery of the ecosystems after restoration, including aspects related to the recovery of ecosystem services.
Although the primary focus of the Research Topic is on restoration biology, manuscripts may include socio-economic aspects related to the restoration of coastal ecosystems (socio-ecological systems approach). Also, we will welcome papers that show unsuccessful approaches!
Keywords: restoration biology, coastal marine ecosystems
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
