Global analysis of seagrass restoration: the importance of large-scale planting
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- Department of Environmental Science Faculty of Science Institute for Water and Wetland Research Radboud University Nijmegen Heyendaalseweg 135 6525 AJ Nijmegen The Netherlands
- Greeley Laboratories Institute for Sustainable Forestry School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Yale University Prospect St New Haven CT 06511 USA
- Department of Global Change Research IMEDEA (CSIC‐UIB) Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats C/Miguel Marqués 21 07190 Esporles Spain
- Virginia Institute of Marine Science College of William & Mary P.O. Box 1346 Gloucester Point VA 23062 USA
- The UWA Oceans Institute and School of Plant Biology University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley 6009 WA Australia
- Dipartimento di Biologia Pisa University Via Derna 1 56126 Pisa Italy
- GIPREB (Gestion Intégrée pour la Prospective et la Réhabilitation de l'Etang de Berre) 13 Cours Mirabeau 13130 Berre‐l’Étang France
- Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR) Edificio 7 Universidade do Algarve Campus de Gambelas 8005‐139 Faro Portugal
- Precision Identification 3622 West 3rd Avenue Vancouver BC V6R 1L9 Canada
- Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC) Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes YICCAS Yantai S…
- Marine Environmental Information Group Port and Airport Research Institute Nagase Yokosuka Kanagawa 239‐0826 Japan
- Research Centre for Oceanography Indonesian Institute of Sciences Jl. Pasir Putih No. 1, Ancol, Timur Jakarta Utara 14430 Indonesia
- Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute University of Tokyo 5‐1‐5 Kashiwanoha Kashiwa 277‐8564 Japan
- Department of Biological Sciences Pusan National University Pusan 609‐735 Korea
- EA ECOMERS 4228 University Nice Sophia Antipolis F‐06108 Nice 2 France
- Akkeshi Marine Station Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere Hokkaido University Akkeshi Hokkaido 088‐1113 Japan
- School of Chemical Engineering The University of Queensland St Lucia Qld 4072 Australia
- Ichthys Onshore LNG 11/14 Winnellie Road Winnellie NT 0820 Australia
- Marine Program Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County 423 Griffing Avenue, Suite 100 Riverhead NY 11901 USA
- School of Veterinary and Life Sciences Environmental and Conservation Sciences Murdoch University South Street Murdoch 6150 Perth WA Australia
Journal of Applied Ecology201553(2): 567–578doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12562
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Abstract
In coastal and estuarine systems, foundation species like seagrasses, mangroves, saltmarshes or corals provide important ecosystem services. Seagrasses are globally declining and their reintroduction has been shown to restore ecosystem functions. However, seagrass restoration is often challenging, given the dynamic and stressful environment that seagrasses often grow in.
From our world‐wide meta‐analysis of seagrass restoration trials (1786 trials), we describe general features and best practice for seagrass restoration. We confirm that removal of threats is important prior to replanting. Reduced water quality (mainly eutrophication), and construction activities led to poorer restoration success than, for instance, dredging, local direct impact and natural causes. Proximity to and recovery of donor beds were positively correlated with trial performance. Planting techniques can influence restoration success.
The meta‐analysis shows that both trial survival and seagrass population growth rate in trials that survived are positively affected by the number of plants or seeds initially transplanted. This relationship between restoration scale and restoration success was not related to trial characteristics of the initial restoration. The majority of the seagrass restoration trials have been very small, which may explain the low overall trial survival rate (i.e. estimated 37%).
Successful regrowth of the foundation seagrass species appears to require crossing a minimum threshold of reintroduced individuals. Our study provides the first global field evidence for the requirement of a critical mass for recovery, which may also hold for other foundation species showing strong positive feedback to a dynamic environment.
Synthesis and applications . For effective restoration of seagrass foundation species in its typically dynamic, stressful environment, introduction of large numbers is seen to be beneficial and probably serves two purposes. First, a large‐scale planting increases trial survival – large numbers ensure the spread of risks, which is needed to overcome high natural variability. Secondly, a large‐scale trial increases population growth rate by enhancing self‐sustaining feedback, which is generally found in foundation species in stressful environments such as seagrass beds. Thus, by careful site selection and applying appropriate techniques, spreading of risks and enhancing self‐sustaining feedback in concert increase success of seagrass restoration.
Why it matters for Life Mapper
What predicts the survival of seagrass restoration trials worldwide. Sample record that shows how a paper with a DOI appears.
Editorial note by the Life Mapper team — not part of the original article.
Publication details
- Journal
- Journal of Applied Ecology · ISSN 0021-8901
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015
- Volume (issue): pages
- 53(2): 567–578
Cite this paper
Open accessvan Katwijk, M. M., Thorhaug, A., Marbà, N., Orth, R. J., Duarte, C. M., Kendrick, G. A., Althuizen, I. H. J., Balestri, E., Bernard, G., Cambridge, M. L., Cunha, A., Durance, C., Giesen, W., Han, Q., Hosokawa, S., Kiswara, W., Komatsu, T., Lardicci, C., Lee, K., ... Verduin, J. J. (2015). Global analysis of seagrass restoration: the importance of large-scale planting. Journal of Applied Ecology, 53(2), 567-578. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12562
Publisher: Wiley
Cited by: 573 · via OpenAlex