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      Recent trend reversal for declining European seagrass meadows

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          Abstract

          Seagrass meadows, key ecosystems supporting fisheries, carbon sequestration and coastal protection, are globally threatened. In Europe, loss and recovery of seagrasses are reported, but the changes in extent and density at the continental scale remain unclear. Here we collate assessments of changes from 1869 to 2016 and show that 1/3 of European seagrass area was lost due to disease, deteriorated water quality, and coastal development, with losses peaking in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, loss rates slowed down for most of the species and fast-growing species recovered in some locations, making the net rate of change in seagrass area experience a reversal in the 2000s, while density metrics improved or remained stable in most sites. Our results demonstrate that decline is not the generalised state among seagrasses nowadays in Europe, in contrast with global assessments, and that deceleration and reversal of declining trends is possible, expectingly bringing back the services they provide.

          Abstract

          Seagrass meadows are important but one of the most threatened ecosystems globally. Here the authors analyse data about extent and density of seagrasses in Europe from 1869 to 2016, and find evidence of recent trend reversal for declining European seagrass meadows.

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          Most cited references39

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          Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems.

          Coastal ecosystems and the services they provide are adversely affected by a wide variety of human activities. In particular, seagrass meadows are negatively affected by impacts accruing from the billion or more people who live within 50 km of them. Seagrass meadows provide important ecosystem services, including an estimated $1.9 trillion per year in the form of nutrient cycling; an order of magnitude enhancement of coral reef fish productivity; a habitat for thousands of fish, bird, and invertebrate species; and a major food source for endangered dugong, manatee, and green turtle. Although individual impacts from coastal development, degraded water quality, and climate change have been documented, there has been no quantitative global assessment of seagrass loss until now. Our comprehensive global assessment of 215 studies found that seagrasses have been disappearing at a rate of 110 km(2) yr(-1) since 1980 and that 29% of the known areal extent has disappeared since seagrass areas were initially recorded in 1879. Furthermore, rates of decline have accelerated from a median of 0.9% yr(-1) before 1940 to 7% yr(-1) since 1990. Seagrass loss rates are comparable to those reported for mangroves, coral reefs, and tropical rainforests and place seagrass meadows among the most threatened ecosystems on earth.
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            The role of coastal plant communities for climate change mitigation and adaptation

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              A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                cbsantos@ualg.pt
                Journal
                Nat Commun
                Nat Commun
                Nature Communications
                Nature Publishing Group UK (London )
                2041-1723
                26 July 2019
                26 July 2019
                2019
                : 10
                : 3356
                Affiliations
                [1 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9693 350X, GRID grid.7157.4, Centre of Marine Sciences of Algarve (CCMAR), , University of Algarve, ; Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal
                [2 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1956 2722, GRID grid.7048.b, Department of Bioscience, , Aarhus University, ; Vejlsøvej 25, 8600 Silkeborg, Denmark
                [3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1956 2722, GRID grid.7048.b, Arctic Research Centre, Department of Bioscience, , Aarhus University, ; Ny Munkegade 114, Building 1540, 8000 Århus C, Denmark
                [4 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0159 2034, GRID grid.423563.5, Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), ; Carretera Acc, Cala Sant Francesc 14, 17300 Blanes, Girona Spain
                [5 ]ISNI 0000 0000 8518 7126, GRID grid.466857.e, Global Change Research Group, Institut Mediterrani d’Estudis Avançats (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), ; Miquel Marquès 21, 07190 Esporles, Illes Balears Spain
                [6 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1926 5090, GRID grid.45672.32, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Red Sea Researh Center (RSRC) and Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC), ; Thuwal, 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia
                [7 ]ISNI 0000000122931605, GRID grid.5590.9, Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, , Radboud University Nijmegen, ; Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
                [8 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1937 0247, GRID grid.5841.8, Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, and Environmental Sciences, , University of Barcelona, ; Av. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
                [9 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2168 1800, GRID grid.5268.9, Department of Marine Sciences and Applied Biology, , University of Alicante, ; PO BOX 99, 03080 Alicante, Spain
                [10 ]GRID grid.425054.2, Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, ; Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
                [11 ]ISNI 0000000103580096, GRID grid.7759.c, Department of Biology, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Marine Research Institute, , University of Cádiz, ; 11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz Spain
                [12 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2174 9334, GRID grid.410350.3, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS UMR 7204 Centre d’Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation, Station de Biologie Marine, ; Place de la Croix BP225, 29182 Concarneau Cedex, France
                [13 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2151 3065, GRID grid.5606.5, DiSTAV, Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, , University of Genoa, ; Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy
                [14 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2177 0037, GRID grid.412058.a, Coastal Ecosystem Team (FRES 3041/UMR 6134), , University of Corsica, ; BP 52, 20250 Corte, France
                [15 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0943 6642, GRID grid.410389.7, Seagrass Ecology Group, Oceanographic Center of Murcia, , Spanish Institute of Oceanography, ; C/Varadero, 30740 San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia Spain
                [16 ]ISNI 0000 0001 2331 9653, GRID grid.238406.b, Natural England, Pydar House, ; Truro, TR1 1XU UK
                [17 ]ISNI 0000 0001 1091 0604, GRID grid.424562.3, Environmental Protection Agency, ; John Moore Road, Castlebar, F23 KT91 Co. Mayo Ireland
                [18 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0427 3161, GRID grid.10917.3e, Institute of Marine Research, ; P.O.Box 1870 Nordnes, 5817 Bergen, Norway
                [19 ]Medi Ambient, Ajuntament de Badalona, Plaça de la Vila 1, 08911 Badalona, Barcelona Spain
                [20 ]GRID grid.425715.0, Department Sea and Delta, , Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, Rijkswaterstaat, ; 4330 KA Middelburg, The Netherlands
                [21 ]LER Arcachon-Anglet, IFREMER, Quai du commandant Silhouette, 33120 Arcachon, France
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7013-494X
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9792-256X
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8048-6789
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1213-1361
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4482-5835
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2772-8486
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3927-5699
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0533-4109
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4479-4693
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7861-4366
                Article
                11340
                10.1038/s41467-019-11340-4
                6659699
                31350407
                17e16cfa-d627-47f3-86b3-59651afb7fd8
                © The Author(s) 2019

                Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 20 December 2018
                : 3 July 2019
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000921, European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST);
                Award ID: ES0906
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): SFRH/BPD/119344/2016, UID/Multi/04326/2013, UID/MAR/00350/2018.
                Funded by: FundRef https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004052, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST);
                Funded by: Autonomous Government of the Murcia Region (General Directorate of Livestock and Fishery) European Fishery Fund: EFF 2007–2013 European Maritime and Fisheries Fund: EMFF 2014–2020
                Funded by: Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT): UID/Multi/04326/2013, UID/MAR/00350/2018.
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2019

                Uncategorized
                biodiversity,ecosystem ecology
                Uncategorized
                biodiversity, ecosystem ecology

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