Agencies, at all levels, are seeking to develop ecosystem-approaches to management (EAM) of fisheries in efforts to ensure long-term sustainability of the exploited marine resources and ecosystems.  In the marine realm, ecosystem approaches are challenged by the open nature of ecosystems.  The openness of these ecosystem results from two important mechanisms:  the direct exchange of fish, invertebrates and mammals among ecosystems and the spatial segregation of recruitment and spawning in many species.  These two processes produce a complex pattern of connections among coastal and estuarine ecosystems that has important consequences for the resilience and sustainability of networks of coastal ecosystems.  The resultant connectivity among marine ecosystems highlights the importance of selecting the appropriate spatial scale for scientific investigations and management.  This symposium highlights recent research that seeks to quantify the pattern, levels and consequences of connections among coastal and estuarine ecosystems.  Presentations will discuss connectivity issues in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean basins.  The symposium will highlight statistical methods that quantify the pattern and level of connectivity, empirical approaches that measure rates of exchange among ecosystems together with modeling techniques that explore the consequences of differing levels of connectivity to ecosystem resilience and sustainable management.  To conclude the symposium, we will seek to synthesize across different systems to understand broad principles of the implications of connectivity for management of coastal and estuarine ecosystems.