On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Estuaries, where freshwater mixes with saltwater, are dynamic environments of great complexity and a critical habitat for economically important species. Together with coastal waters, which are affected by much the same environmental pressures, they have long suffered degradation. Indeed, last year the United Nations declared the estuaries of China's two greatest rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow, "dead zones." The damage affects not only the immediate estuarine and coastal environment but also the oceans.
To assess the extent of the harm to estuaries and coastal seas and to reconstruct their ecological history, an international team headed by Heike K. Lotze of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has analyzed hundreds of documents. The group focused on 12 temperate-zone estuarine and coastal ecosystems that have been exposed to intense human development for periods ranging from as little as 150 to as many as 2,500 years. They examined 30 to 80 species in each system plus seven water-quality parameters and data on species invasions.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
