Coastal rewilding ranges from protection alone to the active restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems involving different levels of engineering intervention, from transplantation/seeding to geoengineering. Coastal rewilding is categorized as a nature-based solution since it provides mutual nature-societal benefits due to the recovery of biodiversity, climate adaptation, climate change mitigation (blue carbon), and cultural services such as recreation, aesthetics, and human well-being. Coastal rewilding is therefore an important contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and the proposed EU Restoration Law working to restore ecosystems, enhance people’s livelihoods and halt biodiversity loss and climate change. The success and speed of ecosystem restoration can vary due to the complexity of biological, biogeochemical, and physical processes, the level of habitat fragmentation, the restoration techniques used, management, and stakeholder engagement. Furthermore, sea-level rise, storm surges, and heat waves can, in combination with other stressors, delay recovery and should be critically considered when planning coastal rewilding. Trade-offs between blue carbon sequestration vs. greenhouse gas emission, land-use vs. restoration, the spread of non-indigenous vs. native species, and ecological vs. societal/economic/cultural challenges should also be addressed for obtaining successful upscaling of these approaches.
The goal of this Research Topic is to advance knowledge on coastal rewilding approaches by covering aspects of ecosystem functioning, factors facilitating recovery success, and corresponding indicators of flora, fauna (invertebrates, fish, and birds), biogeochemistry, blue carbon, greenhouse gases, flood-risk reduction as well as interests of society and diverse stakeholders. This research topic aims to understand how to increase the resilience of coastal rewilding to climate change and explore hybrid restoration methods, technological advances (in field studies, data science, models, and implementation), and site selection approaches, for upscaling coastal rewilding as a nature-based solution. Currently, there is a strong need for large-scale approaches at the hectare level and simultaneous restoration of several coastal and marine habitats to recreate the seascape and restore connectivity. The research topic also extends to the quantification and evaluation of recovery success in terms of ecosystem extension and related functioning and -services by large-scale remote sensing, sensors, and overall best co-creation practices during planning, execution, and monitoring of rewilding approaches.
In this Research Topic, we invite contributions of natural, engineering, and societal context approaches, potential benefits and risks, of coastal rewilding from habitats at the land-sea continuum such as salt marshes, mangroves, beach meadows, coastal dunes, seagrasses, coastal lagoons, intertidal areas, blue mussels, oysters, coral reefs, macroalgae, and stone reefs. We welcome brief research articles, original research, and reviews addressing but not limited to the topics below:
• Ecological succession of flora and fauna biodiversity
• Supporting restored biodiversity to higher levels of the trophic chain
• Indicators for monitoring coastal rewilding
• Coastal rewilding design: Successes and failures
• Hybrid restoration methods, natural and engineering approaches
• Nutrient filtering capacity of coastal rewilded ecosystems
• Greenhouse gas dynamics and blue carbon
• Ecological connectivity of restored habitats from a seascape perspective
• Solutions to prevent the introduction of invasive/non-indigenous species
• Ecosystem engineers
• Imaging- and mapping technologies for planning and monitoring
• Upscaling of coastal rewilding
• Coastal rewilding resilience to warming, flooding, and coastal erosion (e.g., using empirical or modeling approaches)
• Costs of coastal rewilding, including benefits of ecosystem services
• Integrated valuation of restored ecosystem services
• Stakeholder engagement, co-creation, and social innovation
Coastal rewilding ranges from protection alone to the active restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems involving different levels of engineering intervention, from transplantation/seeding to geoengineering. Coastal rewilding is categorized as a nature-based solution since it provides mutual nature-societal benefits due to the recovery of biodiversity, climate adaptation, climate change mitigation (blue carbon), and cultural services such as recreation, aesthetics, and human well-being. Coastal rewilding is therefore an important contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 and the proposed EU Restoration Law working to restore ecosystems, enhance people’s livelihoods and halt biodiversity loss and climate change. The success and speed of ecosystem restoration can vary due to the complexity of biological, biogeochemical, and physical processes, the level of habitat fragmentation, the restoration techniques used, management, and stakeholder engagement. Furthermore, sea-level rise, storm surges, and heat waves can, in combination with other stressors, delay recovery and should be critically considered when planning coastal rewilding. Trade-offs between blue carbon sequestration vs. greenhouse gas emission, land-use vs. restoration, the spread of non-indigenous vs. native species, and ecological vs. societal/economic/cultural challenges should also be addressed for obtaining successful upscaling of these approaches.
The goal of this Research Topic is to advance knowledge on coastal rewilding approaches by covering aspects of ecosystem functioning, factors facilitating recovery success, and corresponding indicators of flora, fauna (invertebrates, fish, and birds), biogeochemistry, blue carbon, greenhouse gases, flood-risk reduction as well as interests of society and diverse stakeholders. This research topic aims to understand how to increase the resilience of coastal rewilding to climate change and explore hybrid restoration methods, technological advances (in field studies, data science, models, and implementation), and site selection approaches, for upscaling coastal rewilding as a nature-based solution. Currently, there is a strong need for large-scale approaches at the hectare level and simultaneous restoration of several coastal and marine habitats to recreate the seascape and restore connectivity. The research topic also extends to the quantification and evaluation of recovery success in terms of ecosystem extension and related functioning and -services by large-scale remote sensing, sensors, and overall best co-creation practices during planning, execution, and monitoring of rewilding approaches.
In this Research Topic, we invite contributions of natural, engineering, and societal context approaches, potential benefits and risks, of coastal rewilding from habitats at the land-sea continuum such as salt marshes, mangroves, beach meadows, coastal dunes, seagrasses, coastal lagoons, intertidal areas, blue mussels, oysters, coral reefs, macroalgae, and stone reefs. We welcome brief research articles, original research, and reviews addressing but not limited to the topics below:
• Ecological succession of flora and fauna biodiversity
• Supporting restored biodiversity to higher levels of the trophic chain
• Indicators for monitoring coastal rewilding
• Coastal rewilding design: Successes and failures
• Hybrid restoration methods, natural and engineering approaches
• Nutrient filtering capacity of coastal rewilded ecosystems
• Greenhouse gas dynamics and blue carbon
• Ecological connectivity of restored habitats from a seascape perspective
• Solutions to prevent the introduction of invasive/non-indigenous species
• Ecosystem engineers
• Imaging- and mapping technologies for planning and monitoring
• Upscaling of coastal rewilding
• Coastal rewilding resilience to warming, flooding, and coastal erosion (e.g., using empirical or modeling approaches)
• Costs of coastal rewilding, including benefits of ecosystem services
• Integrated valuation of restored ecosystem services
• Stakeholder engagement, co-creation, and social innovation
