Timing anthropogenic stressors to mitigate their impact on marine ecosystem resilience

A window of opportunity to protect marine habitats

29 March 2018

Finding the opportune moment for dredging the ocean could help safeguard marine biodiversity. 

Scooping up sediments from the sea bed, damages marine ecosystems across the globe. Its impact, however, can vary with the timing, location and duration of the disturbance.

A team including researchers from the University of Melbourne modelled the response of 28 global seagrass meadows, a food source for many marine species, to dredging throughout the year. They used three criteria to predict the resilience of each grass species – resistance, recovery, and risk of extinction. 

The team predicted ‘ecological windows’ when the resilience would be highest and found that seagrasses could recover four times faster, with 35 per cent less chance of extinction, if dredging was carried out during this time.

Ecological windows could guide the sustainable management of marine resources while protecting vulnerable habitats from human activities.

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References

1. Nature Communications 8, 1263 (2017). doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01306-9