Coastal and marine ecosystems are closely linked by socioeconomic, biophysical, and geochemical processes. The relationship between land and marine ecosystems can be broadly grouped into socio-economic activities and biogeochemical processes. Biogeochemical processes are physical and biological processes that occur due to the interaction between terrestrial and marine ecosystems or require both ecosystems for them to happen. Socio-economic activities refer to human activities that, due to their characteristics, need both marine and terrestrial space to be carried out.
Biogeochemical processes and socio-economic activities can take various forms. An example of a biogeochemical process with a biological component is the sea turtle’s life cycle. Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the marine environment. However, land ecosystems play an essential role during their reproduction, as coastal areas are their main nesting zones. Erosion and silting are examples of biogeochemical processes connected with physical processes. The action of the waves alters the beach, causing periods of sediment gain and loss, which modifies the coastal line across the year. One of the most notorious socio-economic activities is fishing. It involves land tasks before fishing (e.g., gear cleaning, bait preparation, and fuel purchase), the activity of fishing in marine space, and land activities after fishing (e.g., selection and commercialization of products). Other socio-economic activities involving land-sea interactions are desalination, tourism and coastal recreation, marine cables and pipelines, mining, shipping, aquaculture, and offshore energy.
Negative impacts can also derive from land-sea interactions. For instance, via runoff, agriculture can pollute marine environments with chemical waste or urban growth can cause the destruction and degradation of coastal habitats. Additionally, to these very tangible land-sea interactions, others are less explicit such as climate regulation and human-induced climate change. However, whatever the interaction form is, the lesson is that there is an interdependency between sea and land systems; hence, marine and land systems should not be fragmented into isolated pieces.
Therefore, there is an unbreakable connection between land and marine ecosystems. This connection demands integrated management, since issues addressed as a part of a single system will only be solved partially. A holistic approach can support the integrated management of land-sea interactions. This approach focuses on understanding the whole system and interactions between system parts. In this sense, Indigenous governance can be a source of inspiration to address land and marine management, since various Indigenous cultures have applied the holistic view for many years (e.g., Konkaak people in Mexico and Māori people in New Zealand). In this way, land-sea interactions offer an opportunity to restructure the discourse about marine management. These interactions force us to move from an incomplete strategy that fragments ecosystems to an integral view that better reflects the reality of land and marine systems.
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