This book presents the main drivers of benthic structure and processes in estuaries from the 8,000 km-Brazilian coast, assesses the influence of natural and human disturbance, and discusses their ecological importance and management needs. Estuaries are unique coastal ecosystems often with low biodiversity that sustain and provide essential ecological services to mankind. These ecosystems include a variety of habitats with their own sediment and fauna dynamics, all of them globally altered or threatened by human activities. Mangroves, saltmarshes, tidal flats and other confined estuarine systems are under increasing stress by overfishing and other human activities leading to habitat and species loss. Combined changes in estuarine hydromorphology and in climate pose severe threats to estuarine ecosystems at a global scale.

Autorentext

Paulo da Cunha Lana is a biological oceanographer, marine ecologist and taxonomist (DSc in Biological Oceanography, University of São Paulo, 1984). He is a Full Professor at Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil. He is interested in understanding why benthic animals are where they are, how they have arrived there, how they live and persist and why they are likely to disappear from time to time.

Angelo Fraga Bernardino PhD in Oceanography (2009) from University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, Dr. Bernardino works with benthic ecology along coastal and deep-sea Continental Margin Ecosystems. He is currently involved in a number of research projects that investigate benthic ecology and function on estuarine and coastal habitats in order to support marine conservation.

Inhalt
General introduction.- Estuaries from the Amazonian Ecoregion.- Estuaries from the Northeastern Ecoregion.- Estuaries from the Eastern Ecoregion.- Estuaries from the Southeastern Ecoregion.- Estuaries from the Southern Ecoregion