Tampa Bay (Florida, USA): Documenting Seagrass Recovery since the 1980’s and Reviewing the Benefits

Sherwood, Edward T.; Greening, Holly; Johansson, J.O. R.; Kaufman, Kristen A.; Raulerson, Gary

doi:10.1353/sgo.2017.0026

Cited by 49 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The rise of coastal eutrophication as a global problem, first addressed in the 1970's (Ryther and Dunstan, 1971;Nixon, 1995), led to effort to reduce nutrient inputs into the ecosystems, spreading from pioneering efforts in northern Europe and North America to the world. Three decades after these efforts were initiated, nutrient inputs have been reduced by 25% (e.g., Nitrogen inputs to Chesapeake Bay, Lefcheck et al, 2018) to 50% (e.g., Danish coastal water, Riemann et al, 2016), and in a few cases reverted back to nutrient inputs comparable to those before the onset of eutrophication (e.g., Tampa Bay, Sherwood et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early evidence for the effectiveness of reducing nutrient inputs was derived from the observation that the dramatic reduction in fertilizer use in areas impacted economically by the collapse of the Soviet Union led to improvement in water quality, including that of the Black Sea (McQuatters-Gollop et al, 2008;Oguz and Velikova, 2010) and Cuban coastal waters, where fertilizer applications declined fivefold at this time (Baisre, 2006). Following three decades of sustained efforts to reduce nutrient inputs, coastal ecosystems around the world now start to show encouraging evidence of recovery (McCrackin et al, 2017), as recent evidence for Tampa Bay (Sherwood et al, 2017), Danish coastal waters (Riemann et al, 2016), Chesapeake Bay (Lefcheck et al, 2018), the Wadden Sea (van Beusekom, 2010;Dolch et al, 2013), and areas within the Baltic Sea (Andersen et al, 2017), among others, demonstrate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intervention Options to Accelerate Ecosystem Recovery From Coastal Eutrophication

Duarte

2018

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Three decades following the onset of efforts to revert widespread eutrophication of coastal ecosystems, evidence of improvement of ecosystem status is growing. However, cumulative pressures have developed in parallel to eutrophication, including those associated with climate change, such as warming, deoxygenation, ocean acidification and increased runoff. These additional pressures risk countering efforts to mitigate eutrophication and arrest coastal ecosystems in a state of eutrophication despite the efforts and significant resources already invested to revert coastal eutrophication. Here we argue that the time has arrived for a broader, more comprehensive approach to intervening to control eutrophication. Options for interventions include multiple levers controlling major pathways of nutrient budgets of coastal ecosystems, i.e., nutrient inputs, which is the intervention most commonly deployed, nutrient export, sequestration in sediments, and emissions of nitrogen to the atmosphere as N 2 gas (denitrification). The levers involve local-scale hydrological engineering to increase flushing and nutrient export from (semi)enclosed coastal systems, ecological engineering such as sustainable aquaculture of seaweeds and mussels to enhance nutrient export and restoration of benthic habitats to increase sequestration in sediments as well as denitrification, and geo-engineering approaches including, with much precaution, aluminum injections in sediments. These proposed supplementary management levers to reduce eutrophication involve ecosystem-scale intervention and should be complemented with policy actions to protect benthic ecosystem components.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intervention Options to Accelerate Ecosystem Recovery From Coastal Eutrophication

Duarte

2018

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Over 20 years ago, Tampa Bay managers set an ambitious goal to restore seagrass to 1950 acreage levels, »38,000 total acres (153.8 km 2 ), requiring restoration of 13,000 acres (52.6 km 2 ). Tampa Bay exceeded their restoration goal, with current seagrass extent at 41,655 total acres (169 km 2 ) (Cicchetti and Greening 2011;Sherwood et al 2017). Similarly, San Francisco Bay showed impressive restoration gains even under intense urban pressure.…”

Section: Coastal Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advancing Coastal Habitat Resiliency Through Landscape-Scale Assessment

et al. 2017

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Coastal areas are among the most biologically rich regions in the world. They provide tremendous benefit to people through ecological services like pollution filtration, carbon sequestration, and storm protection. However, human activity has decreased the ability of ecosystems to provide these services, and in many coastal areas, restoration is not as effective as it could be. Limited success is largely attributed to vague goals and a lack of holistic, science-informed planning. Quantifying coastal habitat health can aid in setting better restoration goals and lead to greater restoration success. The Long Island Sound Study National Estuary Program conducted the first comprehensive look at coastal habitat health for the Long Island Sound Estuary. In this study we also reviewed landscape-scale habitat assessment progress within other coastal programs. Results can be applied to establish ecosystem health-oriented goals that improve habitat function and resilience across coastal areas.

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“…Tampa Bay (TB), Florida is arguably one of the United States' greatest success stories regarding ecosystem restoration, and it is recognized internationally for its remarkable progress towards recovery [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. TB is a relatively large (water surface area of 1031 km 2 ) embayment on the west coast of Florida with a watershed of approximately 5700 km 2 [24,28].…”

Section: Background and Ecological Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Factors Key to Landscape-Scale Coastal Restoration: Lessons Learned from Three U.S. Case Studies

et al. 2020

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In the United States, extensive investments have been made to restore the ecological function and services of coastal marine habitats. Despite a growing body of science supporting coastal restoration, few studies have addressed the suite of societally enabling conditions that helped facilitate successful restoration and recovery efforts that occurred at meaningful ecological (i.e., ecosystem) scales, and where restoration efforts were sustained for longer (i.e., several years to decades) periods. Here, we examined three case studies involving large-scale and long-term restoration efforts including the seagrass restoration effort in Tampa Bay, Florida, the oyster restoration effort in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia, and the tidal marsh restoration effort in San Francisco Bay, California. The ecological systems and the specifics of the ecological restoration were not the focus of our study. Rather, we focused on the underlying social and political contexts of each case study and found common themes of the factors of restoration which appear to be important for maintaining support for large-scale restoration efforts. Four critical elements for sustaining public and/or political support for large-scale restoration include: (1) resources should be invested in building public support prior to significant investments into ecological restoration; (2) building political support provides a level of significance to the recovery planning efforts and creates motivation to set and achieve meaningful recovery goals; (3) recovery plans need to be science-based with clear, measurable goals that resonate with the public; and (4) the accountability of progress toward reaching goals needs to be communicated frequently and in a way that the general public comprehends. These conclusions may help other communities move away from repetitive, single, and seemingly unconnected restoration projects towards more large-scale, bigger impact, and coordinated restoration efforts.

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Tampa Bay (Florida, USA): Documenting Seagrass Recovery since the 1980’s and Reviewing the Benefits

Cited by 49 publications

References 26 publications

Intervention Options to Accelerate Ecosystem Recovery From Coastal Eutrophication

Intervention Options to Accelerate Ecosystem Recovery From Coastal Eutrophication

Advancing Coastal Habitat Resiliency Through Landscape-Scale Assessment

Social Factors Key to Landscape-Scale Coastal Restoration: Lessons Learned from Three U.S. Case Studies

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