Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Marine ecosystems worldwide are increasingly degraded by upstream land use activities, compounding climate change impacts. However, empirically quantifying causal land-sea linkages remains challenging. Using remote sensing data (1987-2019) and four causal inference methods, here we developed an empirical and scalable framework to estimate how land use affects coastal turbidity across spatial scales in southern Costa Rica. We found that riparian natural vegetation (15 m buffer) significantly reduced gulf turbidity up to 800 m offshore, which overlaps with coral reefs and seagrass habitats. In contrast, pasture and gravel roads increased coastal turbidity. Effects were greatest for rivers that are short, steep, or have low discharge. Watershed-scale land uses showed no significant effects. We provide a replicable, scalable framework to identify causal pathways from land to sea, particularly valuable in data-limited regions. Riparian conservation and restoration could serve as effective strategies to align human land use needs with terrestrial, freshwater, and marine conservation.
Source: Communications Sustainability
Authors: Hilary D. Brumberg, Laura E. Dee, Hikari Murayama, Juan José Alvarado Barrientos, Brooke Bessesen, Marie G. Bouffard, Matthew G. Burgess, Jorge Cortés, Samuel Furey, Noelia Hernández, Alexa M. Luger, Marguerite Madden, Emily Pauline, Rafael J. P. Schmitt, Katherine J. Siegel, Lucía Vargas-Araya, Andrew Whitworth, Peter Newton
Institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Universidad de Costa Rica, University of Reading, University of Vermont, University of Wyoming, University of Georgia, Osa Conservation, University of California, Santa Barbara, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado System, Wake Forest University
Language: English
Topic: Coastal and Marine Dynamics
Subfield: Earth-Surface Processes
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Moore Family Foundation, Novo Nordisk Fonden, International Conservation Fund of Canada, National Institute of Food and Agriculture
OpenAlex ID: W7128545353