Editorial: biogeochemical responses of tropical ecosystems to environmental changes

Abstract

Recent intensification of existing anthropogenic drivers and the emergence of new ones suggest the need for sustained efforts to understand their impacts on tropical and subtropical coastal ecosystems. Among them, mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrass beds are particularly ecologically important ecosystems, whose response to such impacts are still far from being understood. Also, most literature deals with the response of the biological component of these ecosystems to pressures from regional and/or global environmental changes. In our view, there is still a large gap regarding these ecosystems’ geochemical and biogeochemical responses. Approaches taking into consideration the continuum between watersheds and the ocean and the processes involved in their continuity are particularly inadequate. In addition, long-term studies covering large geographical scales are scarce and are usually threatened by economic instability of many nations along the world’s tropical coas.[..]