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Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation

Benjamin L H Jones Orcid Logo, Lucy Coals Orcid Logo, Leanne C Cullen-Unsworth Orcid Logo, Richard J Lilley Orcid Logo, Alex Bartlett Orcid Logo, Richard Unsworth Orcid Logo

Environmental Research: Ecology, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Start page: 025005

Swansea University Author: Richard Unsworth Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1088/2752-664x/adcacb

Abstract

Numerous global maps chart humanities impact on multiple levels of biodiversity, revealing a multitude of pressures across a variety of ecological systems. While useful for identifying the global scale policy changes needed to conserve the world’s biodiversity, they often lack resolution at the scal...

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Published in: Environmental Research: Ecology
ISSN: 2752-664X
Published: IOP Publishing 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69332
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last_indexed 2025-04-24T06:20:19Z
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spelling 2025-04-23T14:17:37.7292451 v2 69332 2025-04-23 Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f 0000-0003-0036-9724 Richard Unsworth Richard Unsworth true false 2025-04-23 BGPS Numerous global maps chart humanities impact on multiple levels of biodiversity, revealing a multitude of pressures across a variety of ecological systems. While useful for identifying the global scale policy changes needed to conserve the world’s biodiversity, they often lack resolution at the scale needed for local management and conservation. While we can broadly speculate the key large-scale drivers that have influenced seagrass populations over the last century, no global map exists that reveals the range and scale of human pressures on seagrass meadows. Using a citizen science database (https://seagrassspotter.org) that comprises of more than 8000 georeferenced points, we use a subset of these map the prevalence of multiple, locally observed anthropogenic threats to seagrass meadows. We find that 50% of human-impacted sites were within areas with designated protection, reflecting 4.4% of the world’s marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures where anthropogenic activities place seagrass at risk. Using vulnerability scores for each human impact, we identify high-risk sites in Columbia, Fiji, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania, where multiple pressures likely place seagrass meadows on a trajectory of decline. In doing so, we build on a growing body of research highlighting the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems to human impacts, and at the same time, highlight the role of citizen science in identifying and mapping these threats at the resolution needed for management. Journal Article Environmental Research: Ecology 4 2 025005 IOP Publishing 2752-664X citizen science, local knowledge, human pressures, risk, seagrass ecosystems, vulnerability 1 6 2025 2025-06-01 10.1088/2752-664x/adcacb COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Not Required Synchronicity Earth, The Waterloo Foundation, GRID-Arendal, International Climate Initiative (IKI) 2025-04-23T14:17:37.7292451 2025-04-23T13:43:26.4075281 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Benjamin L H Jones 0000-0002-6058-9692 1 Lucy Coals 0009-0008-9061-2233 2 Leanne C Cullen-Unsworth 0000-0002-9134-7266 3 Richard J Lilley 0000-0002-1692-1555 4 Alex Bartlett 0009-0003-0826-1096 5 Richard Unsworth 0000-0003-0036-9724 6 69332__34066__b5fe2359684a41b884479052e78b54b5.pdf pdf.pdf 2025-04-23T13:43:26.4071749 Output 2165674 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
spellingShingle Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
Richard Unsworth
title_short Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
title_full Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
title_fullStr Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
title_full_unstemmed Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
title_sort Mapping global threats to seagrass meadows reveals opportunities for conservation
author_id_str_mv b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f
author_id_fullname_str_mv b0f33acd13a3ab541cf2aaea27f4fc2f_***_Richard Unsworth
author Richard Unsworth
author2 Benjamin L H Jones
Lucy Coals
Leanne C Cullen-Unsworth
Richard J Lilley
Alex Bartlett
Richard Unsworth
format Journal article
container_title Environmental Research: Ecology
container_volume 4
container_issue 2
container_start_page 025005
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 2752-664X
doi_str_mv 10.1088/2752-664x/adcacb
publisher IOP Publishing
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description Numerous global maps chart humanities impact on multiple levels of biodiversity, revealing a multitude of pressures across a variety of ecological systems. While useful for identifying the global scale policy changes needed to conserve the world’s biodiversity, they often lack resolution at the scale needed for local management and conservation. While we can broadly speculate the key large-scale drivers that have influenced seagrass populations over the last century, no global map exists that reveals the range and scale of human pressures on seagrass meadows. Using a citizen science database (https://seagrassspotter.org) that comprises of more than 8000 georeferenced points, we use a subset of these map the prevalence of multiple, locally observed anthropogenic threats to seagrass meadows. We find that 50% of human-impacted sites were within areas with designated protection, reflecting 4.4% of the world’s marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures where anthropogenic activities place seagrass at risk. Using vulnerability scores for each human impact, we identify high-risk sites in Columbia, Fiji, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania, where multiple pressures likely place seagrass meadows on a trajectory of decline. In doing so, we build on a growing body of research highlighting the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems to human impacts, and at the same time, highlight the role of citizen science in identifying and mapping these threats at the resolution needed for management.
published_date 2025-06-01T05:27:53Z
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