Recent trend reversal for declining European seagrass meadows

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URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10498/21690
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11340-4
ISSN: 2041-1723
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de los Santos, Carmen B.; Krause-Jensen, Dorte; Alcoverro, Teresa; Marba, Nuria; Duarte, Carlos M.; van Katwijk, Marieke M.; Perez, Marta; Romero, Javier; Sanchez-Lizaso, Jose L.; Roca, Guillem; Jankowska, Emilia; Pérez Lloréns, José Lucas

Date
2019-07Department
BiologíaSource
Nature Communications (2019) 10:3356Abstract
Seagrass meadows, key ecosystems supporting fisheries, carbon sequestration and coastal
protection, are globally threatened. In Europe, loss and recovery of seagrasses are reported,
but the changes in extent and density at the continental scale remain unclear. Here we collate
assessments of changes from 1869 to 2016 and show that 1/3 of European seagrass area was
lost due to disease, deteriorated water quality, and coastal development, with losses peaking
in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, loss rates slowed down for most of the species and fastgrowing
species recovered in some locations, making the net rate of change in seagrass area
experience a reversal in the 2000s, while density metrics improved or remained stable in
most sites. Our results demonstrate that decline is not the generalised state among seagrasses
nowadays in Europe, in contrast with global assessments, and that deceleration and
reversal of declining trends is possible, expectingly bringing back the services they provide.
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