Talk:Theme 7 Biodiversity of coastal and marine habitats and ecosystems

In the human impacts (threats) chapter too uniquely emphasis is placed on nutrient loads of the coastal zone (eutrophication), despite the fact that also a lot of other polluting chemical substances are entering through river inputs and atmospheric loads into the coastal seas. The former European thematic network "ELOISE" (European Land-Ocean Interaction Studies), which clustered up to 60 different EU-funded research projects, provided evidence of many different polluting chemical compounds in the coastal zones around Europe, including heavy metals, halogenated organic pollutants, endocrine disrupters, POPs, etc (in addition to eutrophying substances). Some of the more toxic substances directly influence the health of marine/coastal species and through this the coastal and marine food chain and the functioning of entire ecosystems.

Another element which is hardly anywhere mentioned so far are the feedback mechanisms from diffuse or point source coastal/marine pollution, through the outgassing of certain substances from algal blooms to the atmosphere (where they may be transformed biogeochemically, for example in cloud droplets under the action of UV energy) and their transport back to the land. One of such feedback mechanisms has been shown for mercury (with an inorganic/non-microbiological methylation process of mercury in cloud droplets to form di-methylmercury, the most toxic Hg form). Another example is the formation of gaseous DMS or DMSP by Phaeocystis blooms.

Yes this is a shortcoming in the article. However, it is meant to provide an introduction to the coastal and marine environments. I will add additional information based on this comment but I am not a specialist in this area. In order to cover this subject additional articles are required.