Climate Change and Coastal Ecosystems: Long-Term Effects of Climate and Nutrient Loading on Trophic Organization

"The data compilation is impressive by any measure, and thus the book will be useful as a reference volume for researchers working on riverine, estuarine, and coastal marine systems. It is an excellent addition to the scientific literature… I commend Skip for the tremendous amount of effort that he has expended on the production of this book, as well as his other published volumes. The multifaceted nature of the book, inclusive of the huge amount of data compiled, is testimony to Skip’s long and illustrious career as a leading aquatic scientist in the United States." —From the Series Editor Preface, Michael J. Kennish, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA "Occasionally, a book is published that has the potential to change the way we think about estuaries and how dependent we are on them and how we have altered them in the recent past. This is one such book… The Livingston Team has significantly expanded our knowledge of the ongoing and now recognized impacts of global Climate Change in coastal ecosystems – not just the visible rise of sea level and the alteration of habitats, but the invisible and difficult to discern changes in faunal and floral assemblages and the trophic alterations within various habitats… This long-term, comprehensive study of estuaries should serve as a model for future and continuing studies of estuaries in Florida and elsewhere… This treatise is recommended as a source book for all estuarine students, scientists, and coastal resource managers who claim an interest in the health and well-being of coastal ecosystems under their purview and management. Finally, this estuarine treatise contains an up-to-date bibliography of estuarine publications and reports that will serve the reader as a new beginning point for future research and studies. It also contains the methods and materials that Team Livingston used in assessing the health and trophic organization of Florida’s estuaries. Methods and procedures have changed over the past 43 years and new ones will be developed in the future; however, without some understanding of the historic trends in estuarine research reported by Team Livingston, future research may not be comparable to that of the recent past." —From the Foreword, Edwin W. "Ed" Cake, Jr., Ph.D., Chief Science Officer & Biological Oceanographer, Gulf Environmental Associates, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, USA "Robert J. Livingston is well known for his long-term, ecosystem-based research on freshwater, estuarine, and marine systems in the southeastern United States… The information presented in Section II is unique for several reasons. First, and most importantly, it is quite rare to have such an extensive database including biotic and abiotic responses within a single system, much less three separate systems. Second, the contribution is significant because of the focus on trophic organization and the influence of physicochemical characteristics on trophic dynamics. Finally, interpretation of anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., nutrients) within the context of long-term climate change is a refreshing departure from previous studies that fail to consider these important interactions… This is an incredibly powerful story of how three very different systems that are influenced by different combinations of anthropogenic stressors responded to long-term changes in climate." —Will Clements, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, USA "A comprehensive science book based on 45 years of Gulf Coast research at Florida State University, this volume documents the long-term effects of climate change on rivers, estuaries, and coasts (where both most wildlife and most human beings live). The first half of the book gives a technical narrative review of the issues. It looks at how climate change affects the severity of human impacts on coastal environments, and the effects of eutrophication, which causes algal blooms and destroys fisheries. The second half of the book concentrates on the data, gathered over four decades at locales including Apalachee Bay, the Appalachicola River and Estuary, and Pensacola Estuary. A final chapter in this otherwise technical book looks at omissions and misrepresentations of the facts by regional news media in the Gulf Coast area. The book's conclusions are concise: after an unprecedented synthesis of decades of rigorous biological, chemical, geological, and weather study, the results show that healthy resource-based regional economies depend on conservation planning, and they cannot be easily restored if ecological damage is done. The model of success in this study, the Appalachicola Estuary, is losing its fisheries due to the results of climate change, and action based on an informed knowledge of climate change is needed to respond and prevent further damage. Constant misrepresentation of the facts of conservation economics and climate change is doing serious harm to both wildlife and people in the Gulf Coast." —Ringgold, Inc. Book News, February 2015 "The data compilation is impressive by any measure, and thus the book will be useful as a reference volume for researchers working on riverine, estuarine, and coastal marine systems. It is an excellent addition to the scientific literature… I commend Skip for the tremendous amount of effort that he has expended on the production of this book, as well as his other published volumes. The multifaceted nature of the book, inclusive of the huge amount of data compiled, is testimony to Skip’s long and illustrious career as a leading aquatic scientist in the United States." —From the Series Editor Preface, Michael J. Kennish, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA "Occasionally, a book is published that has the potential to change the way we think about estuaries and how dependent we are on them and how we have altered them in the recent past. This is one such book… The Livingston Team has significantly expanded our knowledge of the ongoing and now recognized impacts of global Climate Change in coastal ecosystems – not just the visible rise of sea level and the alteration of habitats, but the invisible and difficult to discern changes in faunal and floral assemblages and the trophic alterations within various habitats… This long-term, comprehensive study of estuaries should serve as a model for future and continuing studies of estuaries in Florida and elsewhere… This treatise is recommended as a source book for all estuarine students, scientists, and coastal resource managers who claim an interest in the health and well-being of coastal ecosystems under their purview and management. Finally, this estuarine treatise contains an up-to-date bibliography of estuarine publications and reports that will serve the reader as a new beginning point for future research and studies. It also contains the methods and materials that Team Livingston used in assessing the health and trophic organization of Florida’s estuaries. Methods and procedures have changed over the past 43 years and new ones will be developed in the future; however, without some understanding of the historic trends in estuarine research reported by Team Livingston, future research may not be comparable to that of the recent past." —From the Foreword, Edwin W. "Ed" Cake, Jr., Ph.D., Chief Science Officer & Biological Oceanographer, Gulf Environmental Associates, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, USA "Robert J. Livingston is well known for his long-term, ecosystem-based research on freshwater, estuarine, and marine systems in the southeastern United States… The information presented in Section II is unique for several reasons. First, and most importantly, it is quite rare to have such an extensive database including biotic and abiotic responses within a single system, much less three separate systems. Second, the contribution is significant because of the focus on trophic organization and the influence of physicochemical characteristics on trophic dynamics. Finally, interpretation of anthropogenic disturbance (e.g., nutrients) within the context of long-term climate change is a refreshing departure from previous studies that fail to consider these important interactions… This is an incredibly powerful story of how three very different systems that are influenced by different combinations of anthropogenic stressors responded to long-term changes in climate." —Will Clements, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, USA "A comprehensive science book based on 45 years of Gulf Coast research at Florida State University, this volume documents the long-term effects of climate change on rivers, estuaries, and coasts (where both most wildlife and most human beings live). The first half of the book gives a technical narrative review of the issues. It looks at how climate change affects the severity of human impacts on coastal environments, and the effects of eutrophication, which causes algal blooms and destroys fisheries. The second half of the book concentrates on the data, gathered over four decades at locales including Apalachee Bay, the Appalachicola River and Estuary, and Pensacola Estuary. A final chapter in this otherwise technical book looks at omissions and misrepresentations of the facts by regional news media in the Gulf Coast area. The book's conclusions are concise: after an unprecedented synthesis of decades of rigorous biological, chemical, geological, and weather study, the results show that healthy resource-based regional economies depend on conservation planning, and they cannot be easily restored if ecological damage is done. The model of success in this study, the Appalachicola Estuary, is losing its fisheries due to the results of climate change, and action based on an informed knowledge of climate change is needed to respond and prevent further damage. Constant misrepresentation of the facts of conservation economics and climate change is doing serious harm to both wildlife and people in the Gulf Coast." —Ringgold, Inc. Book News, February 2015