Coastal Wetlands: Conservation and Ecosystem Services

Coastal wetlands, such as salt marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows, are highly productive, economically valuable, and crucial ecosystems. They are pivotal for maintaining biodiversity and providing essential ecological services, serving as vital breeding and feeding habitats, supporting diverse plant and animal species, and acting as buffers against natural disasters. However, these ecosystems are fragile and vulnerable to disturbances, which can affect their ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Human activities, such as urbanization, agriculture, and industrialization result in pollution, rising sea levels and biological invasions, and contribute to the degradation, loss and disruption of coastal wetlands. For both natural ecosystems and human communities, global wetland restoration and protection efforts are critical to safeguarding their vital functions, including flood control, water purification, and carbon sequestration. Meanwhile, understanding and mitigating these disturbances are essential for conservation.

This Research Topic will cover themes of wetland biodiversity, wetland biogeochemistry, wetland protection and sustainability, wetland pollution control, and marine biotechnology and bioproducts. This collection aims to:

• Understand the threats to coastal wetlands and investigate the effectiveness of coastal wetland resource utilization and restoration techniques' in enhancing ecological resilience and biodiversity;
• Explore the capacity of coastal wetlands' to act as carbon sinks for climate change mitigation;
• Understand the impacts of heterogeneity in species, population or community on coastal wetland ecosystems and develop strategies for their control and eradication.

All types of manuscript are welcome. We welcome submissions across diverse disciplines related to the conservation and ecosystem services of coastal wetlands, focussing on a range of critical topics, including but not limited to:

1. Sustainable ecosystems: coastal wetland conservation and restoration – explore strategies and techniques (including resource reuse) for the preservation and restoration of coastal wetland ecosystems.
2. Coastal wetland biogeochemistry: pollutants and nutrient/element cycles and carbon sink – analyze the impact of pollutants and nutrients biogeochemical cycles to wetland ecosystems to function as carbon sinks.
3. Effects of land use on ecological patterns: biological invasion and population/community structure change – examine how different land use practices influence ecological patterns in coastal wetlands.
4. Ecosystem assessment: amendments effects on wetland environmental quality – study the effects of various amendments on the overall environmental quality of coastal wetlands.