State Bulletins tate is the quality or condition of the environment. It is the result of the combined effects of human activities, or pressures, which affect the environment, and societal attempts to reduce those effects, or responses.
State relates to ecological processes or to a part or parts of ecological systems.
Examples include a type of habitat such as tidal wetlands or coral reefs, an individual or group of species, or a physical component of an ecological system such as water or air. NOAA's State of the Coast Report focuses on the national perspective. This is an especially difficult task for topics in this category. Rich national data sets of specific aspects of environmental quality, such as those presented in these essays, are often nonexistent, spatially sparse, or are snapshots of a single moment, or brief period, in time. Thus, discussions of the state of the coastal environment must use a diverse variety of information, and these essays demonstrate that variety.