Mapping and Modeling Land-Sea Nutrient Feedbacks to Enhance Island Ecosystem Resilience

Coastal seascapes are dynamic transitional zones susceptible to various anthropogenic disturbances operating and interacting across the land-sea interface. Local stressors in both terrestrial (e.g., land-use change, urbanization) and marine (e.g., pollution, overfishing) environments now coalesce with global stressors (e.g., ocean warming, acidification) to dramatically alter the form and function of seascapes, along with their ability to provide essential ecosystem goods and services on which coastal communities rely. Although human impacts on coastal seascapes have been evaluated with respect to species range shifts and biological invasions, food web rewiring, and biodiversity loss, there remain few published studies on the consequences of anthropogenic activities on the complex, multi-scale land-sea nutrient exchange pathways that underpin coastal ecosystem functioning. Studies illuminating the spatiotemporal scales and patterns of land-sea nutrient dynamics are urgently required to curb ongoing, rapid declines in ecosystem health, biodiversity, and resilience, particularly in 'open' coastal seascapes lacking discrete boundaries.