Restoring Coastal Resilience

Dear Colleagues, 

Coastal ecosystems are under threat from numerous anthropogenic stressors, resulting in significant habitat losses globally. Restoration can mitigate damage to ecosystems and ensure the recovery and continued sustainment of ecosystem services. However, our understanding of how to restore ecosystems, particularly in coastal regions, to persist and ultimately adapt to the consequences of climate change is lacking. This Special Issue will highlight new opportunities and challenges for restoring coastal ecosystems to be resilient in a changing climate. For this Special Issue, we use the definition of resilience provided by Holling (1973): “a measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables”. With this definition in mind, we welcome papers on: 

• Assessments of the ability of novel restoration techniques, monitoring approaches, and planning initiatives to bolster the resilience of restored coastal ecosystems;
• Case studies that evaluate the ability of restored coastal ecosystems to respond to changing environmental conditions, including, but not limited to rising sea levels, storm events, ocean acidification, and increasing temperature;
• Reviews of current efforts to include climate change impacts in planning and design of restoration projects; and 
• Perspectives on how to restore and enhance resilience of coastal ecosystems under changing environmental conditions. 

Citation: Holling, C. S. 1973. Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 4: 1–23.

Dr. Rachel K. Gittman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• Restoration ecology
• Resilience
• Ecosystem function
• Coastal habitats
• Climate change