Seagrass ecosystems facing losses

The first comprehensive assessment of the state of seagrass meadows around the world shows the damage that human activities have done to the economically and biologically essential areas, the journal Nature reported. The meadows are among the most threatened ecosystems on earth, scientists say, with loss rates comparable to those of mangroves, coral reefs and tropical rain forests.
English

Data reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that more than a quarter of the world’s seagrass meadows have been lost since records began 130 years ago. Additionally, the rate of that decline has grown from less than 1% per year before 1940 to 7% per year since 1990.

“Our report of mounting seagrass losses reveals a major global environmental crisis in coastal ecosystems, for which seagrasses are sentinels of change,” wrote study author Frederick Short, of the University of New Hampshire, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Seagrass — flowering plants that evolved from terrestrial ones — support unique wildlife such as green turtles and dugong. They also act as a vital nursery for fish, supporting populations for coral reefs and commercial fisheries. The meadows further help to stabilise sediment and provide coastal protection, as well as trapping carbon and helping in nutrient transportation.

The vast majority of the decline, experts say, is attributable to human activity, such as nutrient and sediment pollution and the introduction of invasive species. Seagrasses also are likely to be affected by climate change.

See full story

-->
Cookies Settings

Dialogue Earth uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser. It allows us to recognise you when you return to Dialogue Earth and helps us to understand which sections of the website you find useful.

Required Cookies

Required Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Dialogue Earth - Dialogue Earth is an independent organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of the world's urgent environmental challenges. Read our privacy policy.

Cloudflare - Cloudflare is a service used for the purposes of increasing the security and performance of web sites and services. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy and terms of service.

Functional Cookies

Dialogue Earth uses several functional cookies to collect anonymous information such as the number of site visitors and the most popular pages. Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to improve our website.

Google Analytics - The Google Analytics cookies are used to gather anonymous information about how you use our websites. We use this information to improve our sites and report on the reach of our content. Read Google's privacy policy and terms of service.

Advertising Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Google Inc. - Google operates Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Google Ad Manager. These services allow advertisers to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs with greater ease and efficiency, while enabling publishers to maximize their returns from online advertising. Note that you may see cookies placed by Google for advertising, including the opt out cookie, under the Google.com or DoubleClick.net domains.

Twitter - Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find compelling and follow the conversations.

Facebook Inc. - Facebook is an online social networking service. China Dialogue aims to help guide our readers to content that they are interested in, so they can continue to read more of what they enjoy. If you are a social media user, then we are able to do this through a pixel provided by Facebook, which allows Facebook to place cookies on your web browser. For example, when a Facebook user returns to Facebook from our site, Facebook can identify them as part of a group of China Dialogue readers, and deliver them marketing messages from us, i.e. more of our content on biodiversity. Data that can be obtained through this is limited to the URL of the pages that have been visited and the limited information a browser might pass on, such as its IP address. In addition to the cookie controls that we mentioned above, if you are a Facebook user you can opt out by following this link.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and mobile apps.