Introduction to the Special Issue on Climate Change and Brazilian Coastal Zone

The multidisciplinary Coastal Zone (CZ) network from the National Institute of Sciences and Technology (INCT) for Climate Change, aims to evaluate the state of knowledge and coordinate projects dealing with the effects of global climate changes in the country’s coastal zone. During its first year, CZ focused on literature review, historic data analysis and vulnerability studies. The studies were presented during the I Brazilian Workshop on Climate Change and Coastal Zones, and resulted in the fifteen scientific articles that comprise this Special Issue. Based on regional case studies and a few broad national assessments, results showed how the large Brazilian coast and their ecosystems are highly vulnerable to climate variability, and which parameters and regions may be more impacted by global climate change. With only a few studies aiming to evaluate the vulnerability of biological, ecological and socio-economic parameters, along with the many deficiencies on basic knowledge, the country’s coastal and marine zones are still neglected by climate change policies. Although a series of scientific goals still need to be achieved to better evaluate the effects of climate change on the Brazilian coastal zone, the present volume constitute a first step towards the provision of guidance to managers and policymakers. Key-words: Global Climate Change, impacts and vulnerability, oceanography, coastal geology, marine