Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 160, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111636
Keywords
Seagrass; Habitats; Threats; Resilience; Monitoring; Management
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Seagrass are an important marine ecosystem of the Fiji Islands. We confirm six seagrass species from the archipelago and defined five broad categories of seagrass habitat. We report, with high confidence, seagrass meadows covering 59.19 km(2) of Fiji's shallow water habitats from literature and this study. Long-term monitoring of seagrass abundance, species composition, and seed banks at eight sentinel sites, found no long-term trends. Examination of key attributes that affect seagrass resilience identified meadows as predominately enduring and dominated by opportunistic species which had moderate physiological resistance, and high recovery capacity. We examined threats to Fiji's seagrass meadows from extreme climatic events and anthropogenic activities using a suite of indicators, identifying water quality as a major pressure. Based on these findings, we assessed existing protections in Fiji afforded to seagrass and their services. This understanding will help to better manage for seagrass resilience and focus future seagrass research in Fiji.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available