Impact of human activities on coastal vegetation ? A review

Abstract

Coastal dunes constitute complex interface ecosystems between the land and sea, providing important ecological and socio-economic services like coastal protection, recreation, regulation, food supply and biodiversity. They are characterized by high ecological diversity and also by extremely specialized and endemic species. Coastal areas, because of their position between land and sea, are attractive for many human activities. Unfortunately coastal systems have had a long history of exploitation and mismanagement.

Combining Artificial Neural Networks and GIS Fundamentals for Coastal Erosion Prediction Modeling

“…The study area, as a sandy coastal zone system, is vulnerable to the dynamic balance of land and sea. Its morphology and species composition are the result of alterations of the shorelines (advance or retreat) over years caused by climatic changes, vegetation cover, sediment deposits, storm episodes, sea level variations, and anthropogenic activity [39]. In this study, the focus was on the prediction of areas that are prone to erosion affected by anthropogenic activity, testing two types of neural networks in combination with GIS.…”

“…Spots of coastline landwards displacement were collected in a geodatabase using the dune vegetation line from historical data based on orthorectified aerial photographs and orthophotograph maps, which were the main proxi for coastline positions [30,[33][34][35][36][37][38]. Nowadays, alterations of the vegetation in dunes are caused mostly by human activities which destabilize them and make them prone to erosion processes [39]. In order to identify the degree of human pressure to dune vegetation, satellite images have been classified into two categories: vegetated (gridcode 1) and non-vegetated (gridcode 0) using Iso Cluster Unsupervised Classification in GIS.…”

Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the rhizosphere of Plantago coronopus in Northwestern Algerian coast

“…They are characterized by specific abiotic conditions such as salt spray, mobile or semi-mobile substrates, edaphic drought and mineral deficiency, pollution and human activities such as urbanization and recreation (Hesp et al, 1991;Maun, 2009). Coastal plant species have a particular adaptive quality to these constraints (Hesp et al, 1991;Calvão et al, 2013) which is due, in large part, to the beneficial interaction with symbiotic microorganisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi.…”

Flora y vegetación de las dunas de la Playa Grande de Cartagena, una playa urbana en Chile central

“…Como resultado de la interacción entre las características geomorfológicas, la heterogeneidad ambiental y la diversidad de las especies, las dunas costeras albergan una importante diversidad ecológica, proporcionando bienes y servicios importantes que se han utilizado durante mucho tiempo para numerosas actividades humanas, siendo sustancialmente alteradas por la actividad humana y muchas de ellas ya están severa e irreversiblemente degradadas (Martínez & Psuty, 2004). Hay que considerar que en los sistemas de dunas litorales, cuando están bien conservados, las plantas atrapan la arena y les brindan estabilidad a las dunas (Calvã et al, 2017). En Chile central, las dunas litorales se encuentran en todo el largo de la costa del océano Pacifico y su origen está relacionado con modificaciones climáticas y del nivel del mar durante el Cuaternario, atribuyéndoseles un carácter formativo permanente (Paskoff, 1970).…”