ECOSYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND RURAL COMMUNITIES

Ecosystem sustainability and rural community uplift are essential to address in terms of the progressive pollution of global ecosystems, rapid urbanisation, and the increasingly severe predictions of climate change. The sustainability of ecosystems in the coastal zone and its wildlife is therefore vital. This review addresses these issues by considering current views on climate change and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Models show how international, national and local organisations impact on human communities and on ecosystems and wildlife, and how community sustainability is linked with ecosystem sustainability. Research is described on ecosystem sustainability and biodiversity in the coastal zone. This focuses on marine sedimentary ecosystems in the intertidal and sub littoral zone. Colonisation of sediment by living organisms changes the sedimentary ecosystem. Interactions between organisms living in sediment and the physical and chemical properties of sediment are also important. Sediment microorganisms reduce sediment permeability. This reduces in faunal biodiversity. Beds of the cord grass Spartina at the edges of estuaries make water flow turbulent. This alters potential flood risks and riverbank or estuarine erosion. Changes in temperate and tropical aquatic ecosystems have a central role in determining the abundance and sustainability of larger organisms. These organisms (shellfish, finfish, and birds) are used directly by rural communities, and are also important for ecotourism. Ecosystem sustainability is therefore central to coastal zone rural communities and their economies. The education and awareness building of the coastal communities in these issues is therefore vital.