Emily Weight

Bio 1615

Simple rules can guide whether land or ocean-based conservation will best benefit marine

ecosystems.

This article studies what causes the link between sediment runoff and a coastal marine

ecosystem. It then examines the cost-effect of marine and land conservation actions. The

researchers found that marine restoration is the most gainful over time based on the rate that sea

grass meadow expands into a new habitat. This research is important to study because coastal

marine ecosystems are accelerating in deprivation worldwide. Coastal marine ecosystems pose

a particular challenge to environmental managers because they are exposed to threats occurring

both in the ocean and on land. This is information is benefitting society because we need to

conserve our oceans and make sure they are clean so we dont pollute everything in this world.

The researchers are trying to determine which conservation action is the most cost effective.

This experiment mainly took place in Australia in regions that were below dams, which

have the same sediments that the oceans do in that region. They are doing most of their research

on sea grass meadows which are mainly damaged from anchoring. The researchers made models

that represented both seascape and landscape because they are connected by the sediment runoff

from landscapes into the ocean. They made multiple models of each state the sea grass meadows

could be a part of; intact and unprotected, intact and protected, degraded/cleared or undergoing
restoration. They split the models up into their respectable habitats and made sure they each had

enough light, soft sediments and a suitable wave energy based on whatever habitat they were a

part of.

Based on their studies, the researchers found that they sea grass meadow models, they

discovered the investment of $50 million per year for 30 years. Their model was used to measure

the area of habitats from marine restoration and protection. They found that if the model had

light sensitive specials, then the restoration was more cost effective on land. However, that will

not maximize that area of marine habitat immediately because it depends on how fast the marine

ecosystem will recover to expand its new habitat that is healthy. The researchers found that the

most effective way to restore the marine ecosystem is to directly restore it even though the cost is

higher. Of course it depends on the availability of suitable habitats, but if all of the habitats are

unsuitable, then they will have to minimize the sedimentation stress. They found that it takes

about three years for transplanted sea grass to grow and fill in gaps to become a healthy self

sufficient meadow. It also cost about $418,000 to monitor the sea grass for the extended amount

of time. They found that restoring sea grass meadows in smaller quantities is a better way to

maximize efforts to restore marine life than trying to restore it all at once.

With everything said and done, I feel like this is a good way to start restoring the marine

ecosystem. Sometimes it takes a long time to achieve the results that you want. The saying you

eat an elephant one bite at a time relates to this study because the researchers are taking small

parts of sea grass and transporting it to a controlled environment, sustaining it and then putting it

back in the ocean in hopes that it will continue to spread to other parts of the ocean. If they are

able to achieve this, then the sedimentation run off from the land wont affect marine life as

much because there are healthy parts of sea grass to offset it. Obviously this study is still ongoing
because since their projected timeframe is 30 years, but from what they have published so far, it

seems like this experiment is successful in restoring the marine ecosystem, at least in

Queensland, Australia.
Bibliography
Megan Saunders, Michael Bode, Scott Atkinson, Carissa Klein, Anna Metaxas, Jutta Beher, Maria Beger,
Morena Mills, Sylvaine Giakoumi, Vivitskaia Tulloch, Hugh Possingham,. PLOS Biology. 6
September 2017.