1 / 40

Coastal Ecosystems

Coastal Ecosystems. The most important coastal systems are beaches and coastal dunes. These are important ecosystems in their own right, but also serve as important habitats for a number of organisms that are residents in other ecosystems.

eytan
Download Presentation

Coastal Ecosystems

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Coastal Ecosystems

  2. The most important coastal systems are beaches and coastal dunes. These are important ecosystems in their own right, but also serve as important habitats for a number of organisms that are residents in other ecosystems. These ecosystems are also highly attractive for human development. Their geological nature, however, makes it difficult for them to retain their ecological characteristics while being developed.

  3. Beaches and coastal sand dunes often develop where rivers dump large volumes of sand into shallow coastal waters, or where coastal erosion has created large amounts of sandy sediment that can be deposited on the shoreline by wave action. Beaches are often very distinct ecologically from the adjacent mainland, and often contain isolated populations of endemic species.

  4. They are highly dynamic systems.

  5. Barrier island structure

  6. Another view

  7. Barrier beaches are similar, but remain connected to the mainland at one end.

  8. Barrier beaches and islands lie offshore from about 10% of the world’s coasts, and are particularly important off the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

  9. A number of ideas have been suggested to explain barrier island formation.The most widely accepted is the mainland beach detachment hypothesis.

  10. Passes and inlets also migrate. Longshore currents remove sand from the upflow side of the pass and deposit it downflow.

  11. Barrier beaches are often home to extensive development.

  12. These developments are often destroyed as the result of natural processes.

  13. Life on Sandy Shores

  14. Can usually see a successional change in plant communities.

  15. Railroad vine Sea oats

  16. Saw palmetto Sea grape

  17. Prickly pear cactus Cabbage palm

  18. Live oak hammock

  19. Black mangrove Red mangrove

  20. A number of terrestrial vertebrates make their home in sandy coastal ecosystems. A number of birds, like the least tern, require large empty stretches of beach for nesting.

  21. The Perdido Key beach mouse is one of Alabama’s endangered species.

  22. In the Florida Keys, Key deer were reduced to less than 30 individuals in the late 1940’s.

  23. One of the organisms that is most closely tied to sandy coastal ecosystems are the sea turtles.

  24. Loggerhead

  25. Green sea turtle

  26. Leatherback

  27. Hawksbill

  28. Kemp’s Ridley

  29. Olive Ridley

  30. Flatback

  31. In 1982, Congress passed the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, which designates 186 barrier island units extending for 751 miles along the Atlantic and Gulf shoreline as a Coastal Barrier Resource System. The Coastal Barrier Resource System Table of Contents--U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service

  32. In addition, ten national seashores have been established along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts. These national seashores are part of the national park system. National Seashores that are part of the National Park System

More Related