Global trajectories of seagrasses: Establishing a quantitative basis for seagrass conservation and restoration

Seagrasses are a group of flowering plants that have evolved a unique set of characteristics to live, grow, and reproduce in marine underwater habitats (Les et al., 1997), with key ecosystem services that they provide to coastal areas of the world (Costanza et al., 1997). During the past two decades there has been a significant increase in the number of studies on the distribution, abundance, biology and ecology of seagrasses, including the recent publication of a seagrass atlas (Green and Short, 2003); methods book (Short and Coles, 2001) and research synthesis (Larkum et al., in press). However, the need for a better understanding of seagrasses today has taken on a new meaning and increased urgency. The rate of ecosystem alteration in coastal regions where seagrasses reside is accelerating (Cohen et al., 1997), and these alterations are occurring globally (Short and Wyllie-Echeverria, 1996). The very survival of seagrasses, which have been present for the past 100 million years, depends on their ability to cope with these natural and anthropogenic alterations. The goal of the ¿Global Seagrass Trajectories¿ working group, and the designated sub-groups, will be to use quantitative approaches to critically evaluate the types of changes that seagrasses are experiencing and evaluate likely causes. A previous qualitative examination of the literature indicates that seagrasses are experiencing loss rates (Green and Short, 2003) which match or exceed those of other threatened coastal habitats, such as salt marshes, mangrove forests, and coral reefs (e.g., Pandolfi et al., 2003), for which there is ample scientific and social awareness. Yet, a global assessment with quantitative data for seagrasses is lacking and is the focus of this effort. Synthesizing available information and conveying them to the broader scientific community and society in an effective way will be a key outcome of this project.