Answer:
Explanation:
The committee began its work by identifying the most significant issues confronting coastal environments. This assessment was based on the collective experience of committee members as well as perspectives gained from background documents. The recently completed Regional Marine Research Plans (see Appendix C) provided the views of scientists and environmental managers from the major coastal regions of the United States. Also, the Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution listed the most serious problems affecting the marine environment around the world (GESAMP, 1990). Some of the issues highlighted in the committee's list have been recognized for decades. The committee believes that achieving further significant progress in addressing these issues will require joint agency efforts spanning terrestrial and coastal systems. Such efforts are needed urgently and are now possible under the aegis of the Water Subcommittee.
The committee chose issues that are characterized by their wide geographic scope (e.g., are shared by many regions of the country) and that address the problems of (1) sustainable use of resources, (2) reversibility of effects, and (3) anthropogenically mediated deterioration of coastal systems:
eutrophication,
habitat modification,
hydrologic and hydrodynamic disruption,
exploitation of resources,
toxic effects,
introduction of nonindigenous species.
