Estuaries are among the most degraded and threatened environments worldwide (Scown et al., 2023; Syvitski and Saito, 2007). Highly intervened estuaries with altered environments are the result of human-engineered interventions (e.g., sluice gates, jetties, dikes, impoundments, training walls, port facilities, and dredging), land reclamation, changes in upstream land use, and human-induced pollution (e.g., Nichols et al., 1986; Lotze et al., 2005; Pye and Blott, 2014). Human interventions have modified the hydrodynamics, morphology, and geochemistry of these systems, leading to large deviations from the expected natural state and functioning (e.g., Jiang et al., 2012; Brunier et al., 2014; Zhu et al., 2017; Zarzuelo et al., 2018; Wang and Liu, 2019; Van der Spek and Elias, 2021). Such deviations exhibit non-linear patterns, adding greater complexity to the dynamics of estuarine systems under climate change scenarios. Moreover, anthropogenic actions have altered the estuarine capability to adjust to the environmental change, including responding to increased pressures in the context of climate change. As a result, highly intervened estuaries exhibit a broad range of anomalous responses, including changes in circulation patterns, disturbances in mixing conditions, accelerated siltation, closure of distributary channels, shifts in residence time, severe shoreline retreat, estuarine turbidity maximum zone changes, and the accelerated loss of ecosystem services (e.g., filtering and nutrient recycling) (e.g., Yang et al., 2003; De Jonge et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015; Restrepo et al., 2020; Guo et al., 2021).
doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1414862
