James W. Fourqurean

Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems

Coastal ecosystems and the services they provide are adversely affected by a wide variety of human activities. In particular, seagrass meadows are negatively affected by impacts accruing from the billion or more people who live within 50 km of them. Seagrass meadows provide important ecosystem services, including an estimated

A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems

1.9 trillion per year in the form of nutrient cycling; an order of magnitude enhancement of coral reef fish productivity; a habitat for thousands of fish, bird, and invertebrate species; and a major food source for endangered dugong, manatee, and green turtle. Although individual impacts from coastal development, degraded water quality, and climate change have been documented, there has been no quantitative global assessment of seagrass loss until now. Our comprehensive global assessment of 215 studies found that seagrasses have been disappearing at a rate of 110 km2 yr−1 since 1980 and that 29% of the known areal extent has disappeared since seagrass areas were initially recorded in 1879. Furthermore, rates of decline have accelerated from a median of 0.9% yr−1 before 1940 to 7% yr−1 since 1990. Seagrass loss rates are comparable to those reported for mangroves, coral reefs, and tropical rainforests and place seagrass meadows among the most threatened ecosystems on earth.

Estimating Global “Blue Carbon” Emissions from Conversion and Degradation of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems

ABSTRACT Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, have a long evolutionary history but are now challenged with rapid environmental changes as a result of coastal human population pressures. Seagrasses provide key ecological services, including organic carbon production and export, nutrient cycling, sediment stabilization, enhanced biodiversity, and trophic transfers to adjacent habitats in tropical and temperate regions. They also serve as “coastal canaries,” global biological sentinels of increasing anthropogenic influences in coastal ecosystems, with large-scale losses reported worldwide. Multiple stressors, including sediment and nutrient runoff, physical disturbance, invasive species, disease, commercial fishing practices, aquaculture, overgrazing, algal blooms, and global warming, cause seagrass declines at scales of square meters to hundreds of square kilometers. Reported seagrass losses have led to increased awareness of the need for seagrass protection, monitoring, management, and restoration. However, seagrass science, which has rapidly grown, is disconnected from public awareness of seagrasses, which has lagged behind awareness of other coastal ecosystems. There is a critical need for a targeted global conservation effort that includes a reduction of watershed nutrient and sediment inputs to seagrass habitats and a targeted educational program informing regulators and the public of the value of seagrass meadows.

Florida Bay: A history of recent ecological changes

Recent attention has focused on the high rates of annual carbon sequestration in vegetated coastal ecosystems—marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses—that may be lost with habitat destruction (‘conversion’). Relatively unappreciated, however, is that conversion of these coastal ecosystems also impacts very large pools of previously-sequestered carbon. Residing mostly in sediments, this ‘blue carbon’ can be released to the atmosphere when these ecosystems are converted or degraded. Here we provide the first global estimates of this impact and evaluate its economic implications. Combining the best available data on global area, land-use conversion rates, and near-surface carbon stocks in each of the three ecosystems, using an uncertainty-propagation approach, we estimate that 0.15–1.02 Pg (billion tons) of carbon dioxide are being released annually, several times higher than previous estimates that account only for lost sequestration. These emissions are equivalent to 3–19% of those from deforestation globally, and result in economic damages of

Seagrass community metabolism: Assessing the carbon sink capacity of seagrass meadows

US 6–42 billion annually. The largest sources of uncertainty in these estimates stems from limited certitude in global area and rates of land-use conversion, but research is also needed on the fates of ecosystem carbon upon conversion. Currently, carbon emissions from the conversion of vegetated coastal ecosystems are not included in emissions accounting or carbon market protocols, but this analysis suggests they may be disproportionally important to both. Although the relevant science supporting these initial estimates will need to be refined in coming years, it is clear that policies encouraging the sustainable management of coastal ecosystems could significantly reduce carbon emissions from the land-use sector, in addition to sustaining the well-recognized ecosystem services of coastal habitats.

Seagrass sediments as a global carbon sink: Isotopic constraints

Florida Bay is a unique subtropical estuary at the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. Recent ecological changes (seagrass die-off, algal blooms, increased turbidity) to the Florida Bay ecosystem have focused the attention of the public, commercial interests, scientists, and resource managers on the factors influencing the structure and function of Florida Bay. Restoring Florida Bay to some historic condition is the goal of resource managers, but what is not clear is what an anthropogenically-unaltered Florida Bay would look like. While there is general consensus that human activities have contributed to the changes occurring in the Florida Bay ecosystem, a high degree of natural system variability has made elucidation of the links between human activity and Florida Bay dynamics difficult. Paleoecological analyses, examination of long-term datasets, and directed measurements of aspects of the ecology of Florida Bay all contribute to our understanding of the behavior of the bay, and allow quantification of the magnitude of the recent ecological changes with respect to historical variability of the system.

Spatial Characterization of Water Quality in Florida Bay and Whitewater Bay by Multivariate Analyses: Zones of Similar Influence

[1] The metabolic rates of seagrass communities were synthesized on the basis of a data set on seagrass community metabolism containing 403 individual estimates derived from a total of 155 different sites. Gross primary production (GPP) rates (mean ± SE = 224.9 ± 11.1 mmol O 2 m ―2 d ―1 ) tended to be significantly higher than the corresponding respiration (R) rates (mean ± SE = 187.6 ± 10.1 mmol O 2 m ―2 d ―1 ), indicating that seagrass meadows tend to be autotrophic ecosystems, reflected in a positive mean net community production (NCP 27.2 ± 5.8 mmol O 2 m ―2 d ―1 ) and a mean P/R ratio above 1 (1.55 ± 0.13). Tropical seagrass meadows tended to support higher metabolic rates and somewhat lower NCP than temperate ones. The P/R ratio tended to increase with increasing GPP, exceeding, on average, the value of 1 indicative of metabolic balance for communities supporting a GPP greater than 186 mmol O 2 m ―2 d ―1 , on average. The global NCP of seagrass meadows ranged (95% confidence limits of mean values) from 20.73 to 50.69 Tg C yr ―1 considering a low global seagrass area of 300,000 km and 41.47 to 101.39 Tg C yr ―1 when a high estimate of global seagrass area of 600,000 km 2 was considered. The global loss of 29% of the seagrass area represents, therefore, a major loss of intense natural carbon sinks in the biosphere.

Seasonal and long-term trends in the water quality of Florida Bay (1989–1997)

Seagrass meadows are highly productive habitats found along many of the world’scoastline, providing important services that support the overall functioning of the coastalzone. The organic carbon that accumulates in seagrass meadows is derived not only fromseagrass production but from the trapping of other particles, as the seagrass canopiesfacilitate sedimentation and reduce resuspension. Here we provide a comprehensivesynthesis of the available data to obtain a better understanding of the relative contributionof seagrass and other possible sources of organic matter that accumulate in the sedimentsof seagrass meadows. The data set includes 219 paired analyses of the carbon isotopiccomposition of seagrass leaves and sediments from 207 seagrass sites at 88 locationsworldwide. Using a three source mixing model and literature values for putative sources,we calculate that the average proportional contribution of seagrass to the surfacesediment organic carbon pool is ∼50%. When using the best available estimates ofcarbon burial rates in seagrass meadows, our data indicate that between 41 and66 gC m

Relationships between porewater nutrients and seagrasses in a subtropical carbonate environment

We apply an objective statistical analysis to a 6-yr, multiparameter dataset in an effort to describe the spatial dependence and inherent variation of water quality patterns in the Florida Bay-Whitewater Bay area. Principal component analysis of 16 water quality parameters collected monthly over a 6-yr period resulted in live principal components (PC) that explained 71.8% of the variance of the original variables. The “organic” component (PC1) was composed of TN, TON, APA, and TOC; the “inorganic N” component (PCII) contained NO2, NO3, and NH4+, the “phytoplankton” component (PCIII) was made up of turbidity, TP, and Chl a; DO and temperature were inversely related (PCIV); and salinity was the only parameter included in PCV. A cluster analysis of mean and SD of PG scores resulted in the spatial aggregation of 50 fixed monitoring stations in Florida Bay and Whitewater Bay into six zones of similar influence (ZSI) defined as Eastern Florida Bay. Core Florida Bay, Western Florida Bay, Coot Bay, the Inner Mangrove Fringe, and the Outer Mangrove Fringe. Marked differences in physical, chemical, and biological characteristics among ZSI were illustrated by this technique. Comparison of medians and variability of parameter values among ZSI allowed large-scale generalizations as to underlying differences in water quality in these regions. For example. Fastern Florida Bay had lower salinity, TON, TOC, TP, and Chl a than the Core Bay as a function of differences in freshwater inputs and water residence time. Comparison of medians and variability within ZSI resulted in new hypotheses as to the processes generating these internal patterns. For example, the Core Bay had very high TON, TOC, and NH4+ concentrations but very low NO3−, leading us to postulate the inhibition of nitrification via CO production by TOC photolysis. We believe that this simple, objective approach to spatial analysis of fixed-station monitoring datasets will aid scientists and managers in the interpretation of factors underlying the observed parameter distribution patterns. We also expect that this approach will be useful in focussing attention on specific spatial areas of concern and in generating new ideas for hypothesis testing.

Seagrass die-off in Florida bay : Long-term trends in abundance and growth of turtle grass, Thalassia testudinum

Analysis of 6 yr of monthly water quality data was performed on three distinct zones of Florida Bay: the eastern bay, central bay, and western bay. Each zone was analyzed for trends at intra-annual (seasonal), interannual (oscillation), and long-term (monotonic) scales. the variables TON, TOC, temperature, and TN∶TP ratio had seasonal maxima in the summer rainy season; APA and Chla, indicators of the size and activity of the microplankton tended to have maxima in the fall. In contrast, NO3−, NO2−, NH4+, turbidity, and DOsat, were highest in the winter dry season. There were large changes in some of the water quality variables of Florida Bay over the study period. Salinity and TP concentrations declined baywide while turbidity increased dramatically. Salinity declined in the eastern, central, and western Florida Bay by 13.6‰, 11.6‰, and 5.6‰, respectively. Some of the decrease in the eastern bay could be accounted for by increased freshwater flows from the Everglades. In contrast to most other estuarine systems, increased runoff may have been partially responsible for the decrease in TP concentrations as input concentrations were 0.3–0.5 μM. Turbidity in the eastern bay increased twofold from 1991 to 1996, while in the central and western bays it increased by factors of 20 and 4, respectively. Chla concentrations were particularly dynamic and spatially heterogeneous. In the eastern bay, which makes up roughly half of the surface area of Florida Bay, Chla declined by 0.9 μg l−1 (63%). The hydrographically isolated central bay zone underwent a fivefold increase in phytoplankton biomass from 1989 to 1994, then rapidly declined to previous levels by 1996. In western Florida Bay there was a significant increase in Chla, yet median concentrations of Chla in the water column remained modest (∼2 μg l−1) by most estuarine standards. Only in the central bay did the DIN pool increase substantially (threefold to sixfold). Notably, these changes in turbidity and phytoplankton biomass occurred after the poorly-understood seagrass die-off in 1987. It is likely the death and decomposition of large amounts of seagrass biomass can at least partially explain some of the changes in water quality of Florida Bay, but the connections are temporally disjoint and the process indirect and not well understood.