Abstract
Tropical landscape and seascape systems are intimately linked by complex ecological relationships that provide environmental services to human societies located in coastal areas and beyond. Paradoxically, nonsustainable activities from these human societies are threatening the functions and benefits of these systems. Anthropogenic processes that damage tropical seascapes are rapidly increasing as a result of coastal and tourism development, increasing human population, unsustainable economic growth, and extensive transformations of natural landscapes. In addition to this overwhelming trend, tropical coastal seascapes are threatened by global climate change. Thus, to address this problem, it is essential to understand the complex ecological relationships between the components of coastal seascape systems and their links to land ecosystems, including the positive and negative effects of humans. The physical and ecological relationships between tropical landscapes and seascapes often define the energy and matter fluxes through which human activities exert their influence on coastal ecosystems. We illustrate these relationships by presenting a case study and conceptual model of coastal and tourism development in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Scientific knowledge and proposals for better governance practices are available to guide management actions and to protect the connectivity of seascape systems. Nonetheless, political will, coupled with the implementation of local and regional integrated management schemes of coastal zones, is urgent. More examples are needed of inland and coastal human societies that successfully integrate scientific knowledge of the links among ecosystems and their decision-making processes in order to achieve sustainable development based on the services provided by their surrounding seascapes.
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Arias-González, J.E., Rivera-Sosa, A., Zaldívar-Rae, J., Alva-Basurto, C., Cortés-Useche, C. (2016). The Animal Forest and Its Socio-ecological Connections to Land and Coastal Ecosystems. In: Rossi, S., Bramanti, L., Gori, A., Orejas Saco del Valle, C. (eds) Marine Animal Forests. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_33-1
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