ES0906 - Seagrass productivity: from genes to ecosystem management

The main objective of this Action is to provide the scientific basis for estimating and preserving the goods and services arising from the productivity of European seagrass ecosystems under anthropogenic pressure.

Seagrass ecosystems rank with coral reefs and tropical rainforests in their many ecosystem services, yet are drastically declining worldwide as a consequence of both anthropogenic and natural pressures including habitat fragmentation, eutrophication, poor water clarity and climate change stressors. In spite of this, the level of awareness is low and management ineffective. Seagrass research is fragmented and there is little integration between researchers and coastal zone managers.

The Action aim is to form a European-wide research coordination network that integrates expertise in physiological ecology, ecological genomics and conservation-resource management. Uniquely, scientists and managers will work together to close the pure/applied research gap and to develop comprehensive best practices for integrated seagrass habitat management. This is a much talked-about approach that has not been implemented. The European capacities for seagrass research will be integrated to carry out six tasks: establish continuous, in-situ measurement devices for seagrass productivity, establish a modelling and monitoring tool based on seagrass light requirements, understand seagrass responses to global changes, assess seagrass genetic adaptative variation at photosynthetic related loci, evaluate the effectiveness of existing and new seagrass-health ecological indicators and provide guidelines to improve the conservation and management of seagrass dominated ecosystems.