Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Earth System Science Data
Volume
15
Issue
1
First Page
511
Last Page
519
Publisher
Copernicus Publications
School
Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research / School of Science
RAS ID
60304
Funders
Edith Cowan University (ECU) Industry Engagement Scholarship (A.L.) / Environmental Protection Authority (SA)/Water SA (A.L.) / Edith Cowan University (ECU) Higher Degree by Research Scholarship (C.S.) / I+D+i projects RYC2019-027073-I and PIE HOLOCENO 20213AT014 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER (O.S.)
Abstract
Seagrass meadows provide valuable socio-ecological ecosystem services, including a key role in climate change mitigation and adaption. Understanding the natural history of seagrass meadows across environmental gradients is crucial to deciphering the role of seagrasses in the global ocean. In this data collation, spatial and temporal patterns in seagrass meadow structure, biomass and production data are presented as a function of biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics. The biological traits compiled include measures of meadow structure (e.g. percent cover and shoot density), biomass (e.g. above-ground biomass) and production (e.g. shoot production). Categorical factors include bioregion, geotype (coastal or estuarine), genera and year of sampling. This dataset contains data extracted from peer-reviewed publications published between 1975 and 2020 based on a Web of Science search and includes 11 data variables across 12 seagrass genera. The dataset excludes data from mesocosm and field experiments, contains 14271 data points extracted from 390 publications and is publicly available on the PANGAEA® data repository (10.1594/PANGAEA.929968; Strydom et al., 2021). The top five most studied genera are Zostera, Thalassia, Cymodocea, Halodule and Halophila (84 % of data), and the least studied genera are Phyllospadix, Amphibolis and Thalassodendron (2.3 % of data). The data hotspot bioregion is the Tropical Indo-Pacific (25 % of data) followed by the Tropical Atlantic (21 %), whereas data for the other four bioregions are evenly spread (ranging between 13 and 15 % of total data within each bioregion). From the data compiled, 57 % related to seagrass biomass and 33 % to seagrass structure, while the least number of data were related to seagrass production (11 % of data). This data collation can inform several research fields beyond seagrass ecology, such as the development of nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation, which include readership interested in blue carbon, engineering, fisheries, global change, conservation and policy.
DOI
10.5194/essd-15-511-2023
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Strydom, S., McCallum, R., Lafratta, A., Webster, C. L., O'Dea, C. M., Said, N. E., ... & Serrano, O. (2023). Global dataset on seagrass meadow structure, biomass and production. Earth System Science Data, 15(1), 511-519. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-511-2023