Interlinked Threats to Benthic Ecosystems: Marine Pollution, Climate Warming, and Harmful Algae Blooms

The most essential parts of the functioning ocean are marine benthic communities, and the contribution that mangroves, corals, seagrass, and soft-sediment benthic habitats make worldwide to functioning as a carbon sink, biogeochemical cycling, and breeding and nurseries for the majority of the world's marine faunal populations. But these marine habitats are being altered at unprecedented levels, due to multifactorial synergism of chronic pollution from coastal areas and catastrophic climate change, resulting in lethal, even deadly, harmful algal blooms (HABs). These harmful algae and seaweed blooms flourish primarily due to nutrient input from fertilizer-loaded runoff from agro-businesses, which leads to toxic blooms rising. This Research Topic's goal is to solve the inherent conflict of how localized pollution impacts and global climate change combine to promote and intensify toxic HABs, and the consequent effects on benthic and pelagic habitats. The history of marine drivers for HABs suggests they are addressed individually, leading to a black hole of ignorance concerning multi-stressor events. This topic intends to address this by bringing together researchers in chemical ecotoxicology, benthic ecology, biogeochemistry, and marine climate science. Using combinations of field data collection, detailed and predictive modelling, and a series of multi-stressor experiments, the data within this will build a clear picture of surface impacts on benthic life and nutrients; and will consequently provide environmental managers and marine scientists with the relevant knowledge to better predict ecosystem resilience, coastal risk assessments, and strategies to reduce targeted sources of pollution and marine conservation efforts under current rapid global change scenarios.This Research Topic addresses key uncertainties in the reciprocal response of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), Pelagic and benthic coastal systems to regional chemical pollution in combination with dramatic climate change. This Topic will strive to identify links between single-stressor studies and integrated multi-stressor frameworks to overcome significant knowledge gaps in ocean resilience, nutrient cycling, and the resilience of benthic ecosystems.The Research Topic seeks innovative unpublished and original contributions that cover any aspect of the following major topics: Multi-stressor processes and feedback mechanisms linking chemical ecotoxicology, global warming, and acidification of benthic habitats Field applications of empirical monitoring or high-resolution predictive modeling for HAB dynamics, including sediment-water interfaces Biogeochemical cycling, and mechanisms of toxicity in coastal habitats including corals, mangroves, seagrasses, and soft sediments Policy implications, frameworks for risk assessment and well-targeted pollutant reduction for conservation of coastal marine environments under dynamic climate change.Types of Manuscripts Accepted: A wide range of formats are welcomed by this Research Topic, including Original Research articles, Systematic Reviews, Brief Research Reports, Method papers, and Mini-Reviews. The topic welcomes perspectives and mini-reviews that provide insight into current challenging scientific issues. Topic editors: Jiang Helong, Jigneshkumar N Trivedi, Dr. BALAJI Prasath Barathan, Dr.Pranav J Pandya Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86201/interlinked-threats-to-benthic-ecosystems-marine-pollution-climate-warming-and-harmful-algae-blooms