This book provides an integrated view of Atlantic coastal Patagonian ecosystems, including the physical environment, biodiversity and the main ecological processes, together with their derived ecosystem services and anthropogenic impacts. It focuses on the key components of the aquatic ecosystem, covering the lower levels (plankton) to the top predators like large mammals and birds, before turning to human beings as consumers and shapers of coastal marine resources. The book then presents an overview of how organisms that constitute the aquatic food webs have changed through time and how they likely will soon change due to global change processes and anthropogenic pressures. In this regard it offers a wealth of information such as long-term patterns in physical / atmospheric processes, biodiversity and the distribution of marine organisms, as well as the results of experimental studies designed to understand their responses under future scenarios shaped by both climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The book also covers various aspects of the past, present and potential future relationship of human beings with Patagonian coastal environments, including the utilization of sea products, tourism, and growth of cities.

Part I - The abiotic environment

Chapter 1 - Climate variability and change in Patagonia region
Chapter 2 - Patagonian sea: the physical environment
Chapter 3 - Geological changes in coastal areas of Patagonia
Part II - The biota in Patagonian coastal waters
Chapter 4 - Life in the Patagonian seas through geological time
Chapter 5 - Towards an understanding of the functioning and structure of plankton from Patagonia under a global change scenario: Lessons from univariable to mutivariable approaches
Chapter 6 - Marine macroalgae in a changing world: what do we know and what do we still need to know
Chapter 7 - Impact of global change on invertebrates
Chapter 8 - Fishes changes in marine ichthyofaunas off Patagonia: species composition, biogeographic and functional patterns
Chapter 9 - Long-term population trends of Patagonian marine mammals and their ecosystem interactions
Chapter 10 - Long-term ecology studies in Patagonian seabirds: the case of the Imperial Cormorant, the Magellanic Penguin and other key species
Chapter 11 - Ecological Interactions
Part III - Human beings in Patagonian coasts
Chapter 12 - The evolution in the utilization of sea resources by hunter-gatherers of Central Patagonian coast during the Holocene
Chapter 13 - Fisheries and aquaculture in Patagonia: status trends and future perspectives
Chapter 14 - The relationship of Patagonian societies with the sea, influences in their development and contributions to their wellbeing
Chapter 15 - Futures of Patagonia: urban and tourist prospective in the next Anthropocene
Chapter 16 - Conservation of coastal environments.