Recent climate observations suggest

Recent climate observations suggest that extreme climatic events (ECE; droughts, floods, tropical
cyclones, heat waves) have increased in frequency and intensity in certain world regions, consistent
with climate model projections that account for man’s influence on the global climate system. A synthesis
of existing literature is presented and shows that ECE affect estuarine water quality by altering: (1) the
delivery and processing of nutrients and organic matter, (2) physical–chemical properties of estuaries,
and (3) ecosystem structure and function. From the standpoint of estuarine scientists and resource managers,
a major scientific challenge will be to project the estuarineresponse to ECE that will co-occur with
other important environmental changes (i.e., natural climate variability, global warming, sea level rise,
eutrophication), as this will affect the provisioning of important ecosystem services provided by
estuaries.