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Positive Feedbacks in Seagrass Ecosystems: Implications for Success in Conservation and Restoration

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Abstract

Seagrasses are threatened by human activity in many locations around the world. Their decline is often characterized by sudden ecosystem collapse from a vegetated to a bare state. In the 1930s, such a dramatic event happened in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Before the shift, large seagrass beds (Zostera marina) were present in this area. After the construction of a large dam and an incidence of the “wasting disease” in the early 1930s, these meadows became virtually extinct and never recovered despite restoration attempts. We investigated whether this shift could be explained as a critical transition between alternative stable states, and whether the lack of recovery could be due to the high resilience of the new turbid state. We analyzed the depth distribution of the historical meadows, a long-term dataset of key factors determining turbidity and a minimal model based on these data. Results demonstrate that recovery was impossible because turbidity related to suspended sediment was too high, probably because turbidity was no longer reduced by seagrass itself. Model simulations on the positive feedback suggest indeed the robust occurrence of alternative stable states and a high resilience of the current turbid state. As positive feedbacks are common in seagrasses, our findings may explain both the worldwide observed collapses and the low success rate of restoration attempts of seagrass habitats. Therefore, appreciation of ecosystem resilience may be crucial in seagrass ecosystem management.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank D. J. de Jong, M. B. de Vries, M. J. F. Stive, P. M. J. Herman and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on preliminary drafts of this manuscript. We are also grateful to Rijkswaterstaat (Dutch National Institute for Coastal and Marine Management, RIKZ) for providing important data and support. This study is financially supported by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research/Earth and Life Sciences (NWO-ALW).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Wetland and Water Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Tjisse van der Heide & Marieke M. van Katwijk

  2. Research Centre B-Ware, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Tjisse van der Heide & Alfons J. P. Smolders

  3. Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8080, 6700 DD Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Egbert H. van Nes

  4. Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Centre for Water and Society, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Gertjan W. Geerling

  5. Department of Aquatic Ecology and Environmental Biology, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Science, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Alfons J. P. Smolders

  6. Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology, P.O. Box 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, The Netherlands

    Tjeerd J. Bouma

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  1. Tjisse van der Heide
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Correspondence to Tjisse van der Heide.

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van der Heide, T., van Nes, E.H., Geerling, G.W. et al. Positive Feedbacks in Seagrass Ecosystems: Implications for Success in Conservation and Restoration. Ecosystems 10, 1311–1322 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-007-9099-7

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