Priority Topics

Since 1993, LOICZ has been exploring key drivers and factors that influence land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone, leading to recognition of the growing need for science to inform coastal zone management. Major advances have been made in understanding the biogeochemical and physical role of the coastal zone in global cycles and change. The research focused on material fluxes from the land to the ocean, combining natural and social sciences to elucidate the causes for flux alterations. Understanding relationships between scales, and integration across scales, was an important and challenging aspect of this combined approach.

Until 2011 LOICZ has concentrated on three Priority Topics in order to improve the process of information synthesis as well as to keep LOICZ flexible in its scientific focus. Therefore the Priority Topics have represented a temporary scientific focus of LOICZ and a niche in the wider context of global change research which is subject to continued peer review and subsequent adjustment. Until the LOICZ synthesis in September 2011 the three Priority Topics have been:

	Priority Topics
1.	Linking Social and Ecological Systems in the Coastal Zone
2.	Assessing and Predicting Impact of Environmental Change on Coastal Ecosystems
3.	Linking Governance and Science in Coastal Regions