Marine Pollution Bulletin 83 (2014) 383–386

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

Editorial

Seagrass meadows in a globally changing environment

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Seagrass meadows are valuable ecosystem service providers that are now being lost globally at an
Seagrass unprecedented rate, with water quality and other localised stressors putting their future viability in
Global doubt. It is therefore critical that we learn more about the interactions between seagrass meadows
Environment
and future environmental change in the anthropocene. This needs to be with particular reference to
Ecosystem services
the consequences of poor water quality on ecosystem resilience and the effects of change on trophic
Climate change
interactions within the food web. Understanding and predicting the response of seagrass meadows to
future environmental change requires an understanding of the natural long-term drivers of change and
how these are currently influenced by anthropogenic stress. Conservation management of coastal and
marine ecosystems now and in the future requires increased knowledge of how seagrass meadows
respond to environmental change, and how they can be managed to be resilient to these changes. Finding
solutions to such issues also requires recognising people as part of the social–ecological system. This spe-
cial issue aims to further enhance this knowledge by bringing together global expertise across this field.
The special issues considers issues such as ecosystem service delivery of seagrass meadows, the drivers of
long-term seagrass change and the socio-economic consequences of environmental change to seagrass.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/3.0/).

Scientific concern for the health of our coastal marine envi- factors that influence seagrass meadow biomass, area and species
ronments against a background of anthropogenic pressures and composition, including: physical disturbance, herbivory, intraspe-
global climate change is wide spread (Grech et al., 2012; cific competition, nutrients pollution and sediment laden flood
Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2007; Waycott et al., 2009). In engaging waters (Klumpp et al., 1993; Rasheed and Unsworth, 2011;
with the issues involved it is easy to focus on the global media Rasheed, 2004; Rose et al., 1999; Udy et al., 1999).
discussion of the future of iconic species and habitats; threats The shallow estuarine and coastal distribution of seagrasses and
to polar bears, whales, melting ice sheets and bleaching coral their proximity to anthropogenic impacts has led to widespread
reefs. Other systems, such as seagrass meadows, that are integral losses (Waycott et al., 2009). Almost 14% of all seagrass species
to and underpin the health and productivity of marine coastal are now considered at risk of extinction (Short et al., 2011). A num-
ecosystems receive less public attention yet are of similar impor- ber of environmental parameters determine whether seagrass
tance (Duarte et al., 2008). meadows will occur along any coastline. These include the natural
Seagrass meadows are often the dominant primary producers in biophysical parameters that regulate the physiological activity and
coastal areas, playing a key role in trophodynamics, habitat provi- morphology of seagrasses (such as temperature, salinity, waves,
sion, substrate stability and biogeochemical cycling (Green and currents, depth, substrate, day length, light, nutrients, water cur-
Short, 2003) and are considered one of the most productive of rents, wave action, epiphytes and diseases), the availability of
the Earth’s ecosystems (Costanza et al., 1997; Duarte and seeds and vegetative fragments and the anthropogenic inputs that
Chiscano, 1999). Seagrass meadows globally are closely linked impact plant resources (such as excess nutrients and sediment
with high fisheries production, principally due to their value as a loading). Combinations of these parameters will permit, encourage
critical nursery habitat in all regions of the world (Coles et al., or prevent seagrass meadows thriving.
1993; Jackson et al., 2001; Unsworth et al., 2008), as well as their Direct impacts on seagrass (e.g. removal of plants during dredg-
direct value for fisheries exploitation (Unsworth and Cullen, ing) cause immediate and quantifiable seagrass loss. Indirect
2010). In tropical areas, direct herbivory of seagrasses from impacts (e.g. overfishing of predators, which can cascade down
dugong, sea turtles and parrotfish is common (Lanyon et al., the food web or nutrient enrichment) can be potentially wide-
1989; Unsworth et al., 2007) and many tropical seagrass species spread and chronic. Both classes of loss are important, however
have high primary production rates providing a substantial propor- indirect impacts may be less obvious because the decline in sea-
tion of the primary productivity for associated ecosystems (Kaldy grass meadows can be slow (sometimes years or decades) and dif-
and Dunton, 2000; Mateo et al., 2006). ficult to quantify. This slow loss of seagrass may go unnoticed
Seagrass meadows can be highly dynamic, changing as a result against a shifting baseline through time. Global climate change will
of both natural and anthropogenic influences. There are a variety of exacerbate these impacts (see Plate 1), especially for meadows that

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.02.026
0025-326X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
384 Editorial / Marine Pollution Bulletin 83 (2014) 383–386

lack ecological resilience; a major challenge to those scientists pro- in the special edition that document long term regional and local
viding coastal management advice or modeling future trajectories. changes in seagrass communities around the world from Europe
In 2012 many members of the international seagrass scientific (Potouroglou et al., 2014) to the Western Pacific including Australia
community attended the 10th International Seagrass Biology (Short et al., 2014), and Singapore (Yaakub et al., 2014a, 2014b).
Workshop in Brazil. This workshop series commenced in Japan Understanding what parameters are important for assessing sea-
around 20 years ago to stimulate global discussion on directions grass in monitoring programs is critical to this effort; the papers
for seagrass research and to increase understanding of the services by Christiaen et al. (2014) and Zhang et al. (2014) help answer
provided by healthy seagrass ecosystems (Coles et al., 2014). This some of these issues by examining the use of nitrogen isotopes
conference series sponsored the compilation of a global seagrass and nitrogen ratios for understanding the influences of the urban
methods book in 2001 (Short and Coles, 2001) development of and agricultural environment and signals in nearby seagrass
the World Seagrass Association Inc. in 2002; an atlas of seagrass meadows.
distribution in 2003 (Green and Short, 2003) along with develop- The data sets supporting these manuscripts include some of the
ment of a seagrass red list (Short et al., 2011), global monitoring most comprehensive to date and provide a much greater under-
programs and a seagrass research discussion list – the Seagrass standing of the long-term dynamics within these systems, includ-
Forum. At the 2012 ISBW meeting to stimulate ongoing initiatives ing developing a greater understanding of the temporal dynamics
and to build on this record it was proposed to invite the seagrass of reproduction in Zostera marina (Potouroglou et al., 2014). Under-
community to submit manuscripts to a special journal edition of standing changes in seagrass parameters through time and setting
the Marine Pollution Bulletin. The aim was to capture recent sci- reference points for future analysis will be integral to our ability as
ence results specifically in the areas of understanding change and seagrass scientists to provide advice on future coastal
resilience in a world whose climate has become less predictable. management.
The emphasis would be on indirect impacts, trophic connections At local and regional scales there is an increasing need to justify
and the interaction of seagrass systems with climate change the protection of marine environments, and quantifying ecosystem
parameters in line with the philosophy of the Marine Pollution Bul- services is a key means of providing that justification. Although it is
letin. The fifteen manuscripts submitted range over a variety of often quoted that seagrasses provide high levels of these ecosys-
topics associated with the title and theme of the edition – ‘‘Sea- tem services the data underpinning this is often geographically
grass meadows in a globally changing environment’’. weak. This special issue provides three manuscripts that help to fill
Monitoring change in seagrass meadows at a global scale is a gaps about the importance of the seagrass ecosystem in terms of
challenge in itself. The last 20 years has seen the development of directly supporting food security and human well-being through
number of programs responding to this resulting in three papers supporting fisheries productivity and small scale fisheries. These

Plate 1. Seagrass meadows (Thalassia testudinum) in the Turks and Caicos Islands showing signs of widespread leaf ‘burning’ due to elevated sea surface temperatures in
shallow waters. Such impacts are now seen globally and may increase as global temperatures rise.
 Editorial / Marine Pollution Bulletin 83 (2014) 383–386 385

include a global view of coupled social–ecological systems (Cullen- Garthwin, R.G., Poore, A.G.B., Vergés, A., 2014. Seagrass tolerance to herbivory under
increased ocean temperatures. Mar. Pollut. Bull 83, 475–482.
Unsworth et al., 2014) and analyses of the ecosystem service val-
Grech, A., Chartrand-Miller, K., Erftemeijer, P., Fonseca, M., McKenzie, L., Rasheed,
ues of the seagrass meadows from very different systems in the M., Taylor, H., Coles, R., 2012. A comparison of threats, vulnerabilities and
United Kingdom (Bertelli and Unsworth, 2014) and eastern Africa management approaches in global seagrass bioregions. Environ. Res. Lett. 7.
(de la Torre-Castro et al., 2014). Increasing global interest now also Green, E.P., Short, F.T., 2003. World Atlas of Seagrasses. University of California
Press, Berkley, USA.
focuses on a relatively newly appreciated ecosystem service pro- Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Mumby, P.J., Hooten, A.J., Steneck, R.S., Greenfield, P., Gomez,
vided by seagrass; its capacity to sequester carbon. The special E., Harvell, C.D., Sale, P.F., Edwards, A.J., Caldeira, K., Knowlton, N., Eakin, C.M.,
issue includes a review of the modeling of the carbon sequestration Iglesias-Prieto, R., Muthiga, N., Bradbury, R.H., Dubi, A., Hatziolos, M.E., 2007.
Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. Science 318,
capacity of seagrass meadows (Macreadie et al., 2014). 1737–1742.
Climate change is a significant long-term threat to seagrass. Jackson, E.L., Rowden, A.A., Attrill, M.J., Bossey, S., Jones, M., 2001. The importance of
Managing seagrasses for future resilience to climate change is seagrass beds as a habitat for fishery species. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. 39, 269–304.
Kaldy, J.E., Dunton, K.H., 2000. Above- and below-ground production, biomass and
about understanding current stressors and how they may change reproductive ecology of Thalassia testudinum (turtle grass) in a subtropical
and about knowledge of temperature and ocean chemistry includ- coastal lagoon. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 193, 271–283.
ing developing greater knowledge of distribution limits, under- Kenworthy, W.J., Gallegos, C.L., Costello, C., Field, D., di Carlo, G., 2014. Dependence
of eelgrass (Zostera marina) light requirements on sediment organic matter in
standing ecosystem recovery and defining clear physical Massachusetts coastal bays: implications for remediation and restoration. Mar.
thresholds. Research in the special issue uses modeling to predict Pollut. Bull 83, 446–457.
the upper limit of Posidonia oceanica distribution (Vacchi et al., Klumpp, D.W., Salita-Espinosa, J.T., Fortes, M.D., 1993. Feeding ecology and trophic
role of sea urchins in a tropical seagrass community. Aquat. Bot. 45, 205–229.
2014), develops knowledge of species light needs and how those
Lanyon, J., Limpus, C.J., Marsh, H., 1989. Dugongs and turtles: grazers in the seagrass
needs interact with the environment (Yaakub et al., 2014a, system. In: Larkum, A.W.D., McComb, A.J., Shepherd, S.A. (Eds.), Biology of
2014b; Kenworthy et al., 2014) and determines how deep water Seagrasses: A Treatise on the Biology of Seagrasses with Special Reference to the
seagrasses recover from stress (Rasheed et al., 2014). Australian Region. Elsevier, New York, pp. 610–634.
Macreadie, P.I., Baird, M.E., Trevathan-Tackett, S.M., Larkum, A.W.D., Ralph, P.J.,
There exists increasing evidence of how climate related temper- 2014. Quantifying and modelling the carbon sequestration capacity of seagrass
ature changes may detrimentally affect seagrasses. Collier and meadows – a critical assessment. Mar. Pollut. Bull 83, 430–439.
Waycott (2014) investigate the temperatures and times which lead Mateo, M.A., Cebrián, J., Dunton, K.H., Mutchler, T., 2006. Carbon Flux in Seagrass
Ecosystems, Seagrasses: Biology, Ecology and Conservation. Springer,
to plant mortality, but in addition and more worryingly for sea- Dordrecht.
grass ecologists, demonstrate the synergistic effect of poor water Potouroglou, M., Kenyon, E.J., Gall, A., Cook, K.J., Bull, J., 2014. The roles of flowering,
quality. These complex and until now poorly understood interac- overwinter survival and sea surface temperature in the long-term population
dynamics of Zostera marina around the Isles of Scilly, UK. Mar. Pollut. Bull 83,
tions and the potential wider ecosystem effects are also investi- 500–507.
gated in the special issue study of how ocean acidification Rasheed, M.A., 2004. Recovery and succession in a multi-species tropical seagrass
influences seagrass tolerance to herbivory (Garthwin et al., 2014). meadow following experimental disturbance: the role of sexual and asexual
reproduction. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 310, 13–45.
As editors we appreciate the effort of the seagrass research Rasheed, M., Unsworth, R.K.F., 2011. Long-term climate-associated dynamics of a
community in undertaking the research that underpins this edi- tropical seagrass meadow: implications for the future. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 422,
tion. The research adds significantly to our understanding of sea- 93–103.
Rasheed, M.A., McKenna, S.A., Carter, A.B., Coles, R.G., 2014. Contrasting recovery of
grass ecosystems. The issues developed here are global ones. Our
shallow and deep water seagrass communities following climate associated
world increasingly needs cooperation and linkages across regions losses in tropical north Queensland, Australia. Mar. Pollut. Bull 83, 491–499.
and across disciplines if the predicted changes in our climate come Rose, C.D., Sharp, W.C., Kenworthy, W.J., Hunt, J.H., Lyons, W.G., Prager, E.J.,
to fruition. In putting this edition together we have all played a Valentine, J.F., Hall, M.O., Whitfield, P.E., Fourqurean, J.W., 1999. Overgrazing of
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WA 6150, Australia
⇑
Richard K.F. Unsworth Rob G. Coles
Seagrass Ecosystem Research Group, College of Science, Centre for Tropical Water & Aquatic Ecosystem Research (TropWATER),
Swansea University, Wallace Building, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK James Cook University,
⇑ Tel.: +44 (0) 1792 602133. Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
E-mail address: [email protected]