Integrating Coastal Ecosystem Dynamics and Climate Risk Management

Coastal ecology and evolution are increasingly shaped by interacting climate hazards, including sea-level rise, storm surges, erosion, saltwater intrusion, ocean warming, and changing disturbance regimes. These pressures affect biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, species distributions, evolutionary processes, and the services that coastal ecosystems provide to human communities. Recent research demonstrates that wetlands, dunes, mangroves, seagrass meadows, coral reefs, and other coastal habitats can reduce exposure to hazards while supporting ecological connectivity, carbon storage, and livelihood security. Advances in earth observation, ecological forecasting, high-resolution climate modeling, autonomous monitoring, and artificial intelligence are improving the detection and projection of coastal change. However, important gaps remain in understanding cumulative and cascading impacts, thresholds of ecological resilience, feedbacks between ecological and social systems, and the conditions under which nature-based and hybrid interventions remain effective. Fragmented management, limited long-term data, uncertainty in future scenarios, and inequitable decision-making continue to constrain the development of adaptive and ecologically informed strategies, particularly in data-scarce regions and vulnerable communities.This Research Topic aims to advance an integrated understanding of how coastal biodiversity, ecosystem processes, evolutionary dynamics, and human activities interact under climate change. It will examine how ecological knowledge and risk-based approaches can be combined to assess vulnerability, identify pathways for adaptation and transformation, and support resilient coastal social-ecological systems. Contributions may address the mechanisms that underpin ecological resilience, the effectiveness and trade-offs of nature-based solutions, and the role of governance, local knowledge, and stakeholder participation in translating scientific evidence into equitable management. The Research Topic also seeks to identify transferable approaches for improving decision-making under uncertainty and to clarify how coastal conservation, restoration, and climate adaptation can be aligned.To gather further insights into the ecological and social-ecological dimensions of coastal resilience, this Research Topic welcomes studies focused on coastal ecosystems, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, evolutionary responses, and their interactions with climate risk and human well-being. Themes include, but are not limited to:• Multi-hazard impacts of climate change on coastal biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and ecological networks;• Earth observation, ecological forecasting, artificial intelligence, and real-time monitoring of coastal change;• Ecological thresholds, tipping points, recovery processes, and evolutionary adaptation in coastal ecosystems;• Nature-based solutions, ecological restoration, and hybrid infrastructure for coastal resilience;• Interactions among coastal habitats, species distributions, connectivity, and ecosystem services;• Social-ecological system dynamics and community-based conservation or adaptation. Topic editors: Chao Fan, Chengye Hu, Xiaoli Wang, Xiyong HOU Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83750/integrating-coastal-ecosystem-dynamics-and-climate-risk-management