This assessment outlines an enhanced planning approach for West Coast estuaries that incorporates an evaluation of the regional context for estuarine conservation and recommends an approach to site-scale planning with more focus on ecological processes and functions.
The physical, biological, chemical, and optical
processes of the ocean operate on a wide
variety of spatial and temporal scales, from
seconds to decades and from micrometers to
thousands of kilometers (Dickey et al., this
issue; Dickey, 1991). These processes drive
the accumulation and loss of living and nonliving
mass...