Protecting the ocean’s meadows by increasing the protection of seagrass habitats through diversification of incentives

Pan-disciplinary

UCL

KCL

Natural England

Richard Unsworth (Swansea University),

Seagrass ecosystems are the most widely dispersed of coastal habitats but are often overlooked by research and conservation efforts. Attempts to advance protection have recently focused on highlighting seagrasses ability to store carbon in its sediments, otherwise known as Blue Carbon. However, little is known about the variance in storage between species, and how function affects service provision. The initial aim of this research is to further understand these relationships, through a lens of extremes. The UK and the Philippines offer the opportunity to compare carbon storage of 10 species whose rates of persistence, climatic preference, leaf length and meadow formation are vastly contrasting. To grasp the intricacies of these relationships these parameters will be assessed alongside sediment carbon analysis and ecosystem health in disturbed and undisturbed sites.

Promoting singular incentives, as Blue Carbon does, often fails to achieve resilient conservation. By endorsing Blue Carbon as one of many incentives to conservation resilience can be achieved through governance diversity. Once the Blue Carbon capacity of these habitats are better understood semi-structured interviews will assess the reception of Blue Carbon as a standalone incentive and as part of a network of incentives to conservation in contrasting socioecological locations. The research will have global implications, by improving our understanding of carbon storage in seagrass sediments, and how this knowledge can be used to further conservation efforts.

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