Abstract

During the General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union in Vienna, May 2010, a session was held within the framework of the Biogeosciences division entitled “Biogeochemistry of coastal seas and continental shelves – including Biogeochemistry during the International Polar Year (IPY)”. The session hosted 36 presentations, 11 of which were presented orally. The session was co-sponsored by the IGBP/IHDP core project LOICZ, as well as by the Canadian IPY programs Circumpolar Flaw lead study and GEOTRACES. The session aimed at fostering the understanding of the biogeochemistry of continental shelves, coastal seas and estuarine systems.A special issue about this session has been published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, comprising six papers. These papers span a wide range of the field of coastal biogeochemistry, from sediment water column interaction in shallow seas and tidal mud flats, from observational and theoretical perspectives, respectively. Furthermore, studies plankton community structure and carbonate system dynamic sin coastal areas have been reported.