Opportunities for Protecting and Restoring Tropical Coastal Ecosystems by Utilizing a Physical Connectivity Approach

Abstract

Effectively managing human pressures on tropical seascapes (mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and coral reefs) requires innovative approaches that go beyond the ecosystem as the focal unit. Recent advances in scientific understanding of long-distance connectivity via extended ecosystem engineering effects and on-going rapid developments in monitoring and data-sharing technologies provide viable tools for novel management approaches that use positive across-ecosystem interactions (for example, hydrodynamics). Scientists and managers can now use this collective knowledge to develop monitoring and restoration protocols that are specialized for cross ecosystem fluxes (waves, sediments, nutrients) on a site-specific basis for connected tropical seascape (mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and coral reefs).

Vegetation recovery on neighboring tidal flats forms an Achilles' heel of saltmarsh resilience to sea level rise

“…The present research underpins recent suggestions to manage ecosystem connectivity in order to preserve coastal ecosystems (Gillis et al , ). Moreover, we demonstrate how such an approach becomes increasingly important in the face of global change.…”

“…Beyond saltmarshes and adjacent tidal flats, other connected ecosystems may also display a cascade of vulnerability to environmental changes. For instance, in tropical coastal ecosystems, habitat losses of wave‐damping coral reefs or seagrass beds due to climate change or human disturbances risk weakened stability of the neighboring mangrove forests (Gillis et al , ). Similarly, the resilience of upland Amazon forests is likely to be impaired by the adjacent floodplains, which are more prone to the shift into a fire‐dominated savanna state when the Amazon region becomes drier under climate change (Flores et al ).…”

Seagrass Ecosystems of India as Bioindicators of Trace Elements

“…The low concentration of most of the elements like Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb is a result of settling of the organic matter content that inflows with the land run-off. Seagrass ecosystems are considered as efficient ecosystem engineers and they help in settling a small fraction of this organic matter content on their leaf surface or into the sediment, thus reducing water turbidity and enhancing their photosynthetic activity (Gillis et al, 2017;Guannel et al, 2016). This seasonal and local variation of input of trace elements are reflected in seagrass ecosystems (Govindasamy and Azariah, 1999).…”

Past and Future Grand Challenges in Marine Ecosystem Ecology

“…Marine and coastal ecosystems have suffered substantial degradation in the last century, with important loss in their capacity to deliver ecosystem services (Rocha et al, 2015). Ecological restoration efforts often have low success rates, indicating the need for new strategies, that better account for marine connectivity and interactions with adjacent ecosystems, as well as the physical environment (Gillis et al, 2017). To date, restoration efforts have focused on coastal ecosystems, but with increasing exploration for hydrocarbons and other resources offshore and in areas beyond national jurisdiction, approaches for deep-sea and open sea restoration should be explored and tested; (N4) Moving from descriptive studies to those providing functional assessments, improving the understanding of marine ecosystems, supporting management and sustainability strategies for human activities in the ocean, in line with the UN DOSSD; (N5) Understanding the cause-effect pathways and the response of ecosystems to increasing cumulative human impacts and climate change (Ortiz et al, 2018), as drivers of shifts in most marine ecosystems, altering species distributions and threatening biodiversity (Halpern et al, 2019).…”