Intertidal Zone Management in the Western Indian Ocean: Assessing Current Status and Future Possibilities Using Expert Opinions

Abstract

This expert opinion study examined the current status of the intertidal zone in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) and ranked and discussed future management approaches. Information was gathered from scientists, practitioners, and managers active in the WIO region through a questionnaire and a workshop. The experts stated that the productive intertidal environment is highly valuable for reasons such as recreation, erosion protection, and provision of edible invertebrates and fish. Several anthropogenic pressures were identified, including pollution, harbor activities, overexploitation, and climate change. The experts considered the WIO intertidal zone as generally understudied, undermanaged, and with poor or no monitoring. The most important management strategies according to the expert opinions are to develop and involve local people in integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), to increase knowledge on species-environment relationships, and to develop awareness campaigns and education programs. To improve coastal environmental management and conservation, we argue that the intertidal zone should be treated as one organizational management unit within the larger framework of ICZM.

Seagrass Ecosystem Services and Their Variability across Genera and Geographical Regions

“…Seagrasses are marine flowering plants, which form extensive meadows in shallow coastal waters on all continents except Antarctica [ 1 ], [ 2 ] ( Fig 1 ). The intertidal to shallow subtidal location of most seagrasses allows relatively easy access and multiple uses as well as exposing seagrass ecosystems to both terrestrial and marine based threats [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [ 5 ]. The many threats to seagrass are causing it to rapidly disappear globally [ 3 ], [ 5 ], [ 6 ], [ 7 ].…”

A High-Level Fungal Diversity in the Intertidal Sediment of Chinese Seas Presents the Spatial Variation of Community Composition

“…On the other hand, a PCoA plot showed that no significant difference in fungal communities was detected among sediments collected from tourism, dock, aquaculture and river mouth areas, which are subjected to distinct anthropogenic influences (Nordlund et al, 2014; Whitfield and Pattrick, 2015). Nutritional conditions, temperature, pH, salinity, and other characteristics of marine sediment have been found to have a strong effect on the composition of the fungal community (Jones, 2000; Guo et al, 2015; Li et al, 2016; Tisthammer et al, 2016; etc.).…”

“…These glass tubes filled with sediment were transported to the laboratory and immediately stored at -80°C until total DNA extraction was performed. For analysis of the distribution patterns of fungal communities across different habitat types, the sampled sites were designated as one of five habitat types, namely the area of aquaculture, dock, plant (where covered with mangroves and reeds), river mouth or tourism, on the basis of the main function of a specific site (Nordlund et al, 2014; Whitfield and Pattrick, 2015). …”

“…The dynamic environment with extreme shifts in moisture, waves and salinity may be stressful for some organisms living in this region. On the other hand, the intertidal region provides a broad range of habitats such as mangrove, seagrass meadow, sandy beach, rocky shore, shallow coral and aquaculture area (Nordlund et al, 2014). Recent studies suggest that the intertidal region probably supports a vast biodiversity of microorganisms (Azovsky et al, 2013; Boehm et al, 2014).…”

Fish larvae distribution among different habitats in coastal East Africa

“…As stated by Nordlund et al . (), however, the entire WIO coastal zone is understudied whereby near‐shore sampling, as described by Leis () and Mwaluma et al . (), could provide baseline data.…”