Unravelling complexity in seagrass systems for management: Australia as a microcosm

Realising a vision of no net loss through marine biodiversity offsetting in Australia

“…Other legislation and policies influence how tests of significance are applied and the options available for offsetting. For example, in some jurisdictions local policy classifying an area as being of 'urban use' allows for loss of some habitat such as seagrass which prevents the realisation of an aim of NNL in these areas (Kilminster et al, 2015). Furthermore, establishing marine offset projects is complicated by the overlapping use of an area by different sectors and activities such as shipping and both commercial and recreational fishing.…”

“…Approximately half (48%, n=35) of projects presenting impacts to seagrass considered the issue of equivalence and the majority of those led to habitat restoration or 'like for like' biodiversity offsets. Seagrass habitat is afforded protection in all Australian states (Kilminster et al, 2015;Kirkman, 1997), ranging from direct protection of habitat or indirectly through the protection of fish productivity or water quality targets (Kilminster et al, 2015). Well documented and extensive losses of seagrass habitat across much of Australia's coastline have also led to guidelines in a number of states that mandate the mitigation hierarchy when assessing impacts on seagrass (Kilminster et al, 2015).…”

Functional implications of changes in seagrass species composition in two shallow coastal lagoons

“…These 2 seagrass species are morphologi-cally similar and often occur in mixed beds, but they have different ecological strategies: R. maritima can be classified as a colonizing species, while H. wrightii is closer to an opportunistic seagrass species (Kilminster et al 2015). Colonizing seagrasses have the ability to quickly establish themselves in new areas, but their biomass can fluctuate significantly over time (Pulich 1985, Cho et al 2009, Kilminster et al 2015.…”

“…Opportunistic species also have the ability to colonize new areas, but they tend to form meadows that are more persistent over time and have greater resistance to physiological disturbances than purely colonizing species (Kilminster et al 2015). H. wrightii is a perennial seagrass that maintains a high level of productivity under a wide variety of light, nutrient, and salinity conditions (Dunton 1996).…”

Variability in patterns of macro-epiphytic leaf community of Posidonia oceanica in the Islands of Kuriate: Western coast of Tunisia

“…It provides substratum to a species-rich epiphytic community [12,13], which achieves maximum biomass between the end of spring and the end of summer [1,14]. Monitoring of epiphyte of P. oceanica beds is becoming a useful tool to test the health of coastal environment and several countries have developed programs to study the distribution and the characteristics of seagrass beds and their epiphyte [1,[15][16][17][18]. The effect of different kinds of human-induced disturbances on A RT I C L E I N F O A B S T R AC T seagrasses in Tunisian coast include such phenomena as reduced water clarity (e.g.…”