Nutrient Recycling and Waste Treatment as a Service from Estuarine and Coastal Ecosystems

The main purpose of this chapter is to review ecological economics research on nutrient recycling of coastal ecosystem. For this purpose, two main questions are addressed: Which are the social values of waste recycling and treatment and what characterizes good management of these services? It is found that values have mainly been assigned to nutrient treatment by coastal wetlands, and that these can correspond to 1% of gross domestic product for some countries. It is also observed that policies have been implemented in practice for mitigating degradation of coastal ecosystems, but these differ in different parts of the world. The chapter also points at promising future mitigation options, such as mussel farming.