Abstract
Donor meadow recovery is important in deciding whether removal of material from natural seagrass meadows is a sustainable activity. Thus an investigation into meadow regrowth was undertaken as part of a large-scale seagrass rehabilitation effort in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia. Several plug extraction configurations were examined inPosidonia sinuosaandPosidonia australismeadows to monitor shoot growth into plug scars. No significant differences in shoot growth between extraction configurations were observed, and both species increased their shoot numbers over two years, withP. sinuosashowing a significantly better recovery rate thanP. australis.P. sinuosashoot recovery into extracted areas was2.2±0.1shoots over 24 months, similar to shoot changes in controls (2.3 shoots over the same period).P. australisshoot recovery for each configuration was 0.8 ± 0.3 shoots in 24 months compared with 1.5 shoots in the controls. Based on the number of regrowing shoots, the predicted recovery time of a meadow is estimated at 4 years forP. sinuosaand three years forP. australis. Different plug extraction configurations do not appear to affect meadow recovery, and it can be concluded that established meadows of both species are sustainable providers of planting units for rehabilitation measures.
Highlights
The rate of worldwide seagrass decline has been estimated at 110 km2 y−1 since 1980 and 29% of the total area has disappeared since measurements were recorded in 1879 [1, 2]
Unless there is an alternative source of planting units (PU’s), the overall success of restoration through transplantation is dependent on the recovery of the donor beds
While either choice can be made when sourcing a donor area that will be removed by human activities, in those cases where seagrasses are to be harvested from natural populations, the impact on the donor bed becomes imperative to the overall success of the rehabilitation process
Summary
The rate of worldwide seagrass decline has been estimated at 110 km y−1 since 1980 and 29% of the total area has disappeared since measurements were recorded in 1879 [1, 2]. Mitigation is a compensation measure addressing removal of existing habitat when the agent of loss and responsible party are known [5] and often involves using material from a donor site without damaging it beyond recovery. This is important in deciding whether removal of material from natural vegetation is a sustainable activity [4, 13, 14]. Unless there is an alternative source of planting units (PU’s) (e.g., seeds or seedlings), the overall success of restoration through transplantation is dependent on the recovery of the donor beds
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