Coastal ecosystems are dynamic, complex, and often fragile transition environments between land and oceans. They are exclusive habitats for a broad range of living organisms, function as havens for biodiversity and provide several important ecological services that link terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Humans living in coastal zones have been strongly dependent on these ecosystems as a source of food, physical protection against storms and the advancing sea, and a range of human activities that generate economic income (e.g., tourism and water sports). Notwithstanding, the intensification of human activities in coastal areas of the last decades, as well as the global climatic changes and coastal erosion processes of the present, have introduced detrimental impacts on these environments. Organic and inorganic pollution, marine anthropogenic litter, destruction, and fragmentation and modification of habitats for multiple purposes, overexploitation of natural resources, introduction of invasive species and loss of biodiversity are among the most common impacts. Maintaining the structural and functional integrity of these environments, as well as recovering an ecological balance or mitigating disturbances in systems under the influence of such stressors, are complex tasks, only possible through the implementation of monitoring programs and by assessing their environmental quality. In this Special Issue, colleagues are invited to contribute original research papers and review articles on all aspects of environmental quality monitoring and assessment of coastal ecosystems, with a focus on biotic or abiotic compartments (or both) and using tools that may range between ecological levels of organization from individuals to the ecosystem.
Keywords: coastal ecosystems; environmental quality and environmental indexes; monitoring and/or assessment programs; environmental disturbances; pressures and stressors; anthropogenic impacts; bioindicators; biomonitors; ecotoxicology and biomarkers; populations; communities and ecosystem responses.