Introduction
3
Although all the above mentioned phenomena have been connected to
eutrophication, the data are very variable, and hence it appears to be
difficult to formulate causal relations between increasing nutrient loadings
and biological responses.
Until recently, coastal eutrophication and the resulting effects on marine
macrophytes were mainly treated as local short-term problems. In fact,
these problems have been neglected in favour of eutrophication-related
plankton blooms in the open sea. However, the local nearshore problems
developed into overall coastal and inshore phenomena, and recently we are
facing coastal eutrophication problems on a global scale (see Chap. 3).
Along the European coasts, in numerous places ranging from the
innermost parts of the Baltic and the northernmost Atlantic shores to the
eastern parts of the Mediterranean and into the Black Sea, changes of the
macrophytobenthos, sometimes conspicuous and even dramatic, have
been observed and documented (Fig. 1). Similar observations could probably be made in many more locations. The fact that changes in marine
Fig.!. Locations in European coastal waters where changes in marine benthic vegetation
have been observed and documented