Comunicado de Imprensa | Seagrass Productivity from genes to ecosystem management

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Pr ovi di n g the s ci en ti fi c ba s i s for ma n a g i n g the g oods a n ds er vi ces a r i s i n gfr om Eu r opea ns ea g r a s secos y s temsu n dera n thr opog en i cpr es s u r e

Press release COST Action ES0906 ‘Seagrass productivity: from genes to ecosystem management’

What are seagrasses?

Seagrasses are marine flowering plants (not algae) that thrive in the coastal oceans worldwide. They are descendants of terrestrial plants that found their way back to the sea some 100 million years ago. Most are characterized by strap-like leaves and a horizontal rhizome (stem) with roots. Flowers are highly reduced and pollination takes place underwater. Seagrasses comprise about 50 species that represent 13 genera in 5 families.

Although these 50 species make up less than 0.02% of the flowering plants on earth, they can be found all over the world, including under sea ice, next to coral reefs, and edging most continents.

Seagrasses are a foundational species comprising three levels of biodiversity simultaneously—genetic, species and ecosystem. As such they are among the most productive ecosystems in coastal marine habitats (comparable to tropical rain forests).

They provide critical habitats for a wide array of fish and invertebrate species and are important nursery areas for many of them. Numerous studies have shown that areas containing seagrasses support more abundant and diverse animal assemblages than nonvegetated habitats. Seagrasses are also known to act as biological filters and, in contrast to macroalgae, oxygenate sediments so as to support a rich infauna.

A changing habitat Seagrass meadows are declining around the world at an unprecedented rate, suggesting a global crisis. Because most countries have only rudimentary information on seagrass distribution, reported losses probably represent a small fraction of those that have actually occurred. Furthermore, it is recognized that besides the alarming reports in declining trends across the globe, the rate of loss is accelerating, from 4.3% between 1970 and 1980 to 8.4% in the period from 1990 to the 2000s.

Striking seagrass losses have been documented in North America, Europe and Australia.

Major gaps in seagrass cover and distribution exist for West Africa, northeast South America, the northwest Pacific area of United States and the tropical Indo-Pacific region (from East Africa to Hawaii).

Increased pressure on coastal habitat, from recreational development to aquaculture have severe impacts on seagrass ecosystems. Local fisheries, over harvesting (e.g., clam digging) and pollution greatly affect habitat quality.

Global threats Exacerbating ‘traditional anthropogenic’ disturbances, global climate change will further lead to decreases in water clarity, changes of salinity and increases in means and extremes of sea temperature.

These environmental changes are predicted to be rapid relative to historical and geological rates. In sessile species like seagrasses, individuals at a location cannot easily disperse and must, therefore, cope with the new stress regime. If rapid adaptation cannot take place, then local populations will rapidly shift away from the optimal phenotype, resulting in lower absolute fitness (fewer new plants), lower primary production and possible demographic declines. Seagrass die-offs due to unusually high sea surface temperatures have already been reported in Europe and North America including die-offs at the edge of the range in southern Portugal and France for Zostera marina (eelgrass).

Cost Action ES0906 ‘Seagrass productivity: from genes to ecosystem management’

What is a COST action?

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a programme funded by the European Science Foundation to promote networking and coordination of research (http://www.cost.esf.org). Funding is provided for workshops, training and exchange, with a focus on different stakeholder groups; in this case, scientists, managers and the public.

The Cost Action ES0906 The main objective of this Action is to provide the scientific basis for estimating and preserving the goods and services arising from the productivity of European seagrass ecosystems under anthropogenic pressure.

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Seagrass ecosystems rank with coral reefs and tropical rainforests in their many ecosystem services, yet are drastically declining worldwide as a consequence of both anthropogenic and natural pressures including habitat fragmentation, eutrophication, poor water clarity and climate change stressors. In spite of this, the level of awareness is low and management ineffective. Seagrass research is fragmented and there is little integration between researchers and coastal zone managers.

The Action aim is to form a European-wide research coordination network that integrates expertise in physiological ecology, ecological genomics and conservation-resource management. Uniquely, scientists and managers will work together to close the pure/applied research gap and to develop comprehensive best practices for integrated seagrass habitat management. This is a much talked-about approach that has not been implemented.

The European capacities for seagrass research will be integrated to carry out six tasks: establish continuous, in-situ measurement devices for seagrass productivity, establish a modelling and monitoring tool based on seagrass light requirements, understand seagrass responses to global changes, assess seagrass genetic adaptative variation at photosynthetic related loci, evaluate the effectiveness of existing and new seagrass-health ecological indicators and provide guidelines to improve the conservation and management of seagrass dominated ecosystems.

Contact list Chair: Rui Santos, rosantos@ualg.pt Vice-Chair: Jeanine Olsen, j.l.olsen@rug.nl Dissemination Committee: JoĂŁo Silva, jmsilva@ualg.pt, Alexandra Cunha, acunha@ualg.pt , Sven Beer, svenb@ex.tau.ac.il Scholarship Committee: Sven Beer, svenb@ex.tau.ac.il Visual concept and development by Gobius, info@gobius.pt

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