The Role of Vegetated Coastal Wetlands for Marine Megafauna Conservation

Sievers, Michael; Brown, Christopher J.; Tulloch, Vivitskaia; Pearson, Ryan M.; Haig, Jodie A.; Turschwell, Mischa P.; Connolly, Rod M.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.04.004

Cited by 127 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 86 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, eutrophication in coastal areas has several other negative impacts including reduced biodiversity and damage to recreation and coastal fisheries (Aertebjerg et al, 2001). Vegetated coastal habitats are especially vulnerable to elevated nutrients; seagrass beds and salt marshes can be damaged by algal growth caused by eutrophication, potentially reducing the ability of these habitats to store carbon long-term (Orth et al, 2006;Airoldi and Beck, 2007). Conversely, where eutrophication is reduced through management options, then productivity may decline, and species may change (Underwood and Kromkamp, 1999;McMellor and Underwood, 2014).…”

Section: Riverine Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Offshelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60-100 and 0-40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO 2 , with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks Frontiers in Marine Science | www.frontiersin.org 1 March 2020 | Volume 7 | Article 143Legge et al.Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf.

show abstract

Section: Riverine Nutrient Inputsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…, Sievers et al. ), and a greater understanding of how seagrasses provide these services is required to manage impacts on seagrass (Unsworth et al. ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat complexity influences the structure of food webs in Great Barrier Reef seagrass meadows

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Structural habitat complexity is a fundamental attribute influencing ecological food webs. Simplification of complex habitats occurs due to both natural and anthropogenic pressures that can alter productivity of food webs. Relationships between food web structure and habitat complexity may be influenced by multiple mechanisms, and untangling these can be challenging. We investigated whether (1) size spectra vary across a gradient of habitat complexity in seagrass meadows and (2) structural complexity changes the importance of different primary producers supporting the food web (determined using stable isotope analysis) in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. We found that moderately complex meadows had much steeper size spectra slopes, caused by a higher abundance of smaller animals and fewer larger animals, while meadows on either end of the complexity scale (low and a single meadow with very high complexity) had shallower slopes, indicative of a more balanced distribution of animal sizes across the spectrum. We also found that the importance of epiphytic algae as a food source was high in most meadows, despite the increase in seagrass surface area on which epiphytes could grow. The consistent importance of epiphytic algae suggests that the changes in the availability of different potential food sources did not affect food web structure. Our findings indicate that food web structure may change with variations in structural complexity because of changes in the abundance of smaller and/or larger animals. Food web structure and food sources are important determinants of the dynamic stability of food webs. Size spectra analysis is already used as a monitoring tool for assessing populations of key fisheries species in commercial fishing operations, and thus, we recommend using size spectra as a proxy for assessing the structure of the food webs in different types of seagrass meadows. Size spectra may be a useful indicator of how different meadows provide for ecosystem services such as fisheries.

show abstract

“…Macrophyte ecosystems provide food and habitat to a wide range of invertebrates, fishes, and some marine mammals and reptiles, including several listed under CITES [e.g., the dugong, Dugong dugon; the West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus; and the African manatee, Trichechus senegalensis, all listed in CITES Appendix 1, and the green turtle, Chelonia mydas, classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and also on CITES Appendix 1 (Moore et al, 2017;Sievers et al, 2019)]. Most large animals that depend on seagrasses have declined substantially during historical times, and about 30% of named seahorse species, all of which use seagrass habitats, are included on the IUCN Red List (Hughes et al, 2009).…”

Section: Marine Macrophytes and Animal Species Of Conservation Concernmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a Coordinated Global Observing System for Seagrasses and Marine Macroalgae

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Role of Vegetated Coastal Wetlands for Marine Megafauna Conservation

Cited by 127 publications

References 86 publications

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

Habitat complexity influences the structure of food webs in Great Barrier Reef seagrass meadows

Toward a Coordinated Global Observing System for Seagrasses and Marine Macroalgae

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About