沿岸海洋生態系はその占有面積に比して高度で多様な生態系サービスを提供し、人間生活に恩恵をもたらす一方、相接する陸域・外洋域・大気圏と密接な連関を有し、人間活動からの影響を強く受ける複雑な開放系である。本セッションは、連携する「沿岸海洋生態系１．水循環と陸海相互作用」と共に、相互作用系としての沿岸生態系研究の最前線について研究分野の枠を越えて討議する場を提供する。
本セッションで扱う浅海域生態系は、高度な基礎生産・物質循環・生物多様性で特徴づけられる場であるが、海洋資源に対する高い需要や陸域の開発に伴う環境改変圧力にさらされており、生態系機能の包括的評価と維持再生技術の創成が求められている。サンゴ礁・アマモ場・ガラモ場・マングローブ・干潟・塩性湿地を含む温帯〜熱帯浅海域生態系をフィールドとする生態学・地球化学等の研究者が中心となって最新の研究成果を共有すると共に、新たな研究構想や保全管理策の立案に資することを目的とする。特に物質循環と生態系機能、群集間コネクティビティ、環境変動応答、生態系サービス、広域比較・長期変動等をキーワードとする事例・モデル研究の発表を歓迎する。

Coastal marine ecosystems are complex open system interacting with surrounding watersheds, outer ocean, and the atmosphere, providing a wealth of various ecosystem services to human life. Simultaneously, they are also influenced strongly and often negatively by human activities. This session, together with a companion session dedicated for the water cycle and land-ocean interactions, aims to provide a platform for interdisciplinary discussion covering various aspects of frontiers in coastal ecosystem sciences. This session particularly focuses shallow-water benthic communities ranging from temperate to tropical regions, such as coral reefs, seagrass and macroalgal beds, mangroves, intertidal flats, and saltmarshes. All these communities are characterized by intrinsically high primary production, active material cycling, and biodiversity hot spots. However, increasing human demand for coastal marine resources and industrial development concentrating on coastal regions incur the risk of rapid degradation and diminishment. Comprehensive assessment and monitoring of ecosystem functions and development of effective means for conservation and restoration are urgently needed for such communities. This session is dedicated to organizing and promoting such research and management activities by sharing state-of-the-art science and technology among ecologists, geologists, geochemists, biogeographers, etc. Field-based and modeling studies concerning the following topics are especially welcome: material cycling and ecosystem functions; community connectivity; environmental changes such as global warming, and ocean acidification; ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, nutrient regulation, and fisheries production; broad-scale comparison; long-term ecological researches.