TY - JOUR

T1 - One hundred priority questions for advancing seagrass conservation in Europe

AU - Nordlund, Lina Mtwana

AU - Unsworth, Richard K. F.

AU - Wallner-Hahn, Sieglind

AU - Ratnarajah, Lavenia

AU - Beca-Carretero, Pedro

AU - Boikova, Elmira

AU - Bull, James C.

AU - Chefaoui, Rosa M.

AU - de los Santos, Carmen B.

AU - Gagnon, Karine

AU - Garmendia, Joxe Mikel

AU - Gizzi, Francesca

AU - Govers, Laura L.

AU - Gustafsson, Camilla

AU - Hineva, Elitsa

AU - Infantes, Eduardo

AU - Canning-Clode, João

AU - Jahnke, Marlene

AU - Kleitou, Periklis

AU - Kennedy, Hilary

AU - Klayn, Stefania

AU - Moller, Tiia

AU - Monteiro, João

AU - Piñeiro-Juncal, Nerea

AU - Ponis, Emanuele

AU - Papathanasiou, Vasillis

AU - Poursanidis, Dimitris

AU - Pieraccini, Riccardo

AU - Serrano, Oscar

AU - Sousa, Ana. I.

AU - Schäfer, Susanne

AU - Rossi, Francesca

AU - Storey, D. Sebastian

AU - van Katwijk, Marieke M.

AU - Wall, Dave

AU - Ward, Emma A.

AU - Wilkes, Robert

PY - 2024/5/1

Y1 - 2024/5/1

N2 - Societal Impact Statement Seagrass ecosystems are of fundamental importance to our planet and wellbeing. Seagrasses are marine flowering plants, which engineer ecosystems that provide a multitude of ecosystem services, for example, blue foods and carbon sequestration. Seagrass ecosystems have largely been degraded across much of their global range. There is now increasing interest in the conservation and restoration of these systems, particularly in the context of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis. The collation of 100 questions from experts across Europe could, if answered, improve our ability to conserve and restore these systems by facilitating a fundamental shift in the success of such work. Summary Seagrass meadows provide numerous ecosystem services including biodiversity, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. In Europe, seagrasses can be found in shallow sheltered waters along coastlines, in estuaries lagoons, and around islands, but their distribution has declined. Factors such as poor water quality, coastal modification, mechanical damage, overfishing, land-sea interactions, climate change and disease have reduced the coverage of Europe’s seagrasses necessitating their recovery. Research, monitoring and conservation efforts on seagrass ecosystems in Europe are mostly uncoordinated and biased towards certain species and regions, resulting in inadequate delivery of critical information for their management. Here, we aim to identify the 100 priority questions, that if addressed would strongly advance seagrass monitoring, research and conservation in Europe. Using a Delphi method, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with seagrass experience from across Europe and with diverse seagrass expertise participated in the process that involved the formulation of research questions, a voting process and an online workshop to identify the final list of the 100 questions. The final list of questions covers areas across nine themes: Biodiversity Ecology; Ecosystem services; Blue carbon; Fishery support; Drivers, Threats, Resilience Response; Monitoring Assessment; Conservation Restoration; Governance, Policy Management; and Communication. Answering these questions will fill current knowledge gaps and place European seagrass onto a positive trajectory of recovery.

AB - Societal Impact Statement Seagrass ecosystems are of fundamental importance to our planet and wellbeing. Seagrasses are marine flowering plants, which engineer ecosystems that provide a multitude of ecosystem services, for example, blue foods and carbon sequestration. Seagrass ecosystems have largely been degraded across much of their global range. There is now increasing interest in the conservation and restoration of these systems, particularly in the context of the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis. The collation of 100 questions from experts across Europe could, if answered, improve our ability to conserve and restore these systems by facilitating a fundamental shift in the success of such work. Summary Seagrass meadows provide numerous ecosystem services including biodiversity, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. In Europe, seagrasses can be found in shallow sheltered waters along coastlines, in estuaries lagoons, and around islands, but their distribution has declined. Factors such as poor water quality, coastal modification, mechanical damage, overfishing, land-sea interactions, climate change and disease have reduced the coverage of Europe’s seagrasses necessitating their recovery. Research, monitoring and conservation efforts on seagrass ecosystems in Europe are mostly uncoordinated and biased towards certain species and regions, resulting in inadequate delivery of critical information for their management. Here, we aim to identify the 100 priority questions, that if addressed would strongly advance seagrass monitoring, research and conservation in Europe. Using a Delphi method, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with seagrass experience from across Europe and with diverse seagrass expertise participated in the process that involved the formulation of research questions, a voting process and an online workshop to identify the final list of the 100 questions. The final list of questions covers areas across nine themes: Biodiversity Ecology; Ecosystem services; Blue carbon; Fishery support; Drivers, Threats, Resilience Response; Monitoring Assessment; Conservation Restoration; Governance, Policy Management; and Communication. Answering these questions will fill current knowledge gaps and place European seagrass onto a positive trajectory of recovery.

KW - aquatic environment

KW - biodiversity

KW - blue carbon

KW - communication

KW - Delphi method

KW - ecosystem services

KW - eelgrass

KW - monitoring

U2 - 10.1002/ppp3.10486

DO - 10.1002/ppp3.10486

M3 - Erthygl

VL - 6

SP - 587

EP - 603

JO - Plants, People, Planet

JF - Plants, People, Planet

SN - 2572-2611

IS - 3

ER -