Answer:
Temperate climates of the Earth are characterized by relatively moderate mean annual temperatures, with average monthly temperatures above 10°C in their warmest months and above −3°C in their colder months (Trewartha and Horn, 1980). Most regions with a temperate climate present four seasons, and temperatures can change greatly between summer and winter (McColl, 2005). Most people live in temperate zones, and human population densities in coastal regions are about three times higher than the global average (Small and Nicholls, 2003). Globally, nearly all temperate coastal regions experienced net immigration during the last century (Neumann et al., 2015), and the increasing population associated with rapid economic growth (Hugo, 2011; Smith, 2011) has led to extensive conversion of natural coastal wetlands to agriculture, aquaculture, and silviculture, as well as industrial and residential uses (Valiela, 2006).
Humans both influence and depend on the extensive ecosystem services that temperate coastal wetlands provide, sustained by biological populations and their dynamic interaction with physical and chemical properties of the environment (Kirwan and Megonigal, 2013). The interaction of biota, hydrology, and sediments is clearly evident in the ecological and geomorphologic characteristics of temperate coastal wetlands. Living organisms respond to abiotic factors such as tidal inundation, climate, groundwater, accommodation space (the space between sediment surface and mean sea level), and sediment dynamics, as well as human interventions. The paleoenvironmental records preserved in coastal wetlands provide both ecological and chronological information on their evolution in response to many of these factors and reveal valuable information concerning past climate change, vegetation history, paleohydrology, sea level trends, and alteration by human activities (Tooley, 1986).