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The natural evolution of the estuary-coastal lagoon system of the Ria de Aveiro, Portugal, was halted in 1808 by the construction of a new inlet/outlet channel through the sand spit which isolates it from the Atlantic Ocean. In consequence, tidal amplitudes in the lagoon increased from 0.07-0.13 m to over 1 m. Improvements to the channel since 1936, including construction of jetties, breakwaters and dredging, have increased its cross-sectional area. This has caused a steady increase in tidal amplitude to between 2.5 and 2.8 m, the erosion of mud flats, salt marsh and old salt pans, the widening and deepening of channels, and a greater capacity for sediment transport and dispersal due to the increased tidal currents. The volume of the tidal prism calculated for spring tides is now 1.7 times that in 1951; thus areas bordering the lagoon, especially agricultural fields, are experiencing a progressively increasing risk of flooding and salt water contamination at high water. Any future increase of mean sea level will contribute to an increase of both area and volume of the water mass and could cause important changes to the dynamics of the system. An increase in mean sea level of 0.1 m will, for example, correspond to an increase of 5% in the capacity of the system and contribute to an increase in the speed of tidal propagation. The resulting increase in the volume of the tidal prism will be up to 22% of the present maximum value. KEY WORDS: Coastal lagoon · Tidal changes · Morphological evolution · Sea level rise · Ria de AveiroResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

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This work assessed the Blue Carbon (C) stock in the seagrass meadows (Zostera noltei) of Ria de Aveiro coastal lagoon (Portugal), and evaluated its spatio-temporal trend over the 2003–2005 to 2013–2014 period. Zostera noltei spatial distribution, restricted to intertidal areas in 2014, was mapped by remote sensing using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and aerial photography. Zostera noltei biomass was also monitored in situ over a year and its Blue C stock was estimated. By 2014, intertidal meadows covered an area of 226 ± 4 ha and their Blue C stock ranged from 227 ± 6 to 453 ± 13 Mg C. Overall, Ria de Aveiro Z. noltei intertidal meadows increased in extent over the 2003–2005 to 2013–2014 period, corroborating the recent declining trend reversal observed in Europe and contrary to the global decline trend. This spatio-temporal shift might be related to a natural adjustment of the intertidal meadows to past human intervention in Ria de Aveiro, namely large-scale dredging activities, particularly in the 1996–1998 period, combined with the more accurate assessment performed in 2014 using the UAV. This recovery contributes to the effective increase of the Blue C stock in Ria de Aveiro and, ultimately, to supporting climate regulation and improving ecosystem health. However, major dredging activities are foreseen in the system’s management plan, which can again endanger the recovery trend of Z. noltei intertidal meadows in Ria de Aveiro.

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Abstract. The Ria de Aveiro is an estuary–coastal lagoon system connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a channel with a cross-sectional area that, for more than a century, has increased steadily, partly because of dredging over the last 50 years. Local ocean tides, with amplitudes of up to 3 m, are today transmitted to the lagoon by the single, engineered inlet channel and propagate to the end of the lagoon channels as a damped progressive wave. The increase in tidal amplitude with time has affected the lagoon ecosystem and the water has become more saline. Seagrass beds are important indicators of ecosystem change; until 1980, much of the lagoon bed was covered by seagrasses (Zostera, Ruppia, Potamogeton), which were collected in large quantities for use in agriculture. After 1960, the harvesting declined and the seagrass beds became covered in sediment, so that the area of seagrasses decreased substantially despite the decline in the quantity collected. The change in the pattern of seagrass populations can be related to changes in the physical forcing associated with increased tidal wave penetration. This has, in turn, induced transport and redistribution of coarser, sandy sediment and increased re-suspension and turbidity in the water column. However, the initiating cause for this ecosystem change was dredging, which, since the 1950s, has been used increasingly to widen and deepen the channels of the system.

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