RT journal article
T1 Recent trend reversal for declining European seagrass meadows
A1 de los Santos, Carmen B.
A1 Krause-Jensen, Dorte
A1 Alcoverro, Teresa
A1 Marba, Nuria
A1 Duarte, Carlos M.
A1 van Katwijk, Marieke M.
A1 Perez, Marta
A1 Romero, Javier
A1 Sanchez-Lizaso, Jose  L.
A1 Roca, Guillem
A1 Jankowska, Emilia
A1 Pérez Lloréns, José Lucas
A1 Fournier, Jerome
A1 Montefalcone, Monica
A1 Pergent, Gerard
A1 Ruiz, Juan M.
A1 Cabaco, Susana
A1 Cook, Kevan
A1 Wilkes, Robert J.
A1 Moy, Frithjof E.
A1 Trayter, Gregori
A1 Seglar Arano, Xabier
A1 de Jong, Dick J.
A1 Fernandez Torquemada, Yolanda
A1 Auby, Isabelle
A1 Vergara Oñate, Juan José
A1 Santos, Rui
A2 Biología
AB Seagrass meadows, key ecosystems supporting fisheries, carbon sequestration and coastalprotection, 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 collateassessments of changes from 1869 to 2016 and show that 1/3 of European seagrass area waslost due to disease, deteriorated water quality, and coastal development, with losses peakingin the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, loss rates slowed down for most of the species and fastgrowingspecies recovered in some locations, making the net rate of change in seagrass areaexperience a reversal in the 2000s, while density metrics improved or remained stable inmost sites. Our results demonstrate that decline is not the generalised state among seagrassesnowadays in Europe, in contrast with global assessments, and that deceleration andreversal of declining trends is possible, expectingly bringing back the services they provide.
PB NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
SN 2041-1723
YR 2019
FD 2019-07
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/21690
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/21690
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 05-nov-2026