Rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems

[Alasdair Edwards]

Announcement

Special Issue: Marine Pollution Bulletin

REHABILITATION OF COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS 
====================================

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~ntcmweb/rehab/

Guest editors: Dr Alasdair Edwards, Centre for Tropical Coastal Management 
Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Dr Malcolm Beveridge, Institute 
of Aquaculture, University of Stirling; Emeritus Professor Colin Field, 
Faculty of Science, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Miguel Fortes, 
Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines.

The field of coastal habitat restoration has been steadily growing over the 
last two decades. As salt marsh, mangrove, coral reef, seagrass, dune and 
other coastal systems have been increasingly subject to anthropogenic 
impacts, so research into techniques to rehabilitate these has burgeoned 
together with the implementation of projects to restore habitats.

A number of national and international workshops and meetings on habitat 
restoration are scheduled for 1997 and 1998. In these the success of 
restoration projects and methodologies in both developing and developed 
countries with boreal to equatorial coastal habitats will be evaluated.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring together key research on 
habitat restoration in temperate and tropical latitudes in a single volume, 
to evaluate critically its effectiveness, and to provide a summary of the 
state of the art. 

There are a range of questions and critical issues which the volume will 
seek to address. They include:

*	How do the particular ecological parameters of impacted systems (e.g. 
dynamited reef, clear-cut mangrove forest, abandoned shrimp pond) 
affect what can be achieved in terms of restoration and the likely 
timescales of recovery?
*	What are the precise objectives of restoration projects and what 
institutional, socio-political and economic factors should be taken 
into account when planning rehabilitation projects?
*	How successful have restoration projects been and which techniques 
(scientific and management) have contributed to success? What lessons 
have been learnt from failures?
*	What are the criteria (ecological, political, economic, social, 
legislative) against which success is (or can be) measured?
*	Which functions of degraded coastal systems can feasibly be restored 
and which cannot?
*	Is coastal habitat restoration cost-effective (or could funding 
devoted to rehabilitation be spent to greater benefit in other ways)? 

Is the perceived ability to rehabilitate/restore habitats in 
mitigation, increasing the threat to existing undegraded habitat?
Articles dealing with these issues will be given preference by the editors. 
Purely descriptive articles of case-histories which do not contribute to 
resolution of the questions and critical issues will not normally be 
acceptable.

The Special Issue volume will consist of up to 250 pages. Papers will be 
peer reviewed and should not normally exceed 8 printed pages in length 
including figures, tables and references. For guidance, one page of Marine 
Pollution Bulletin with no figures contains approximately 1000 words and is 
equivalent to about three A4 pages of double-spaced typescript. 

Deadline: The deadline for receipt of manuscripts for consideration in the 
Special Issue is 28 February 1998. To assist the process of peer review, 
the corresponding author may suggest two appropriate reviewers who may be 
asked to give an independent opinion of the research. For each paper, 25 
free offprints will be sent to the corresponding author.

A small number of colour illustrations may be included in the volume. 
Authors wishing to use colour need to make a strong case to the editors.

In addition to printed copy, final versions of papers should be sent on 
3.5" floppy disk (preferably in Word or Wordperfect format). For detailed 
Instructions to Authors and updated information on the Special Issue see:  
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~ntcmweb/rehab/