Seagrass beds are ecologically fundamental ecosystems in shallow waters, as they play an important role in all coastal processes, making them essential for maintaining populations of commercially important species and playing a key role in the sustainability of small-scale fisheries. However, not only are they experiencing a rapid decline, with a loss of around 7% of their global distribution each year, but they also tend to fall outside the conservation agenda of governments and international organizations. Now through the ZEUS project, Celia Olabarría and Elsa Vázquez, researchers from the Coastal Ecology group at the CIM, will evaluate, thanks to funding from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the importance of Zostera noltei meadows as breeding areas and habitats for juveniles and reproductive adults of three species of commercial clams (slug, Japanese and fine) and as mitigators of heat waves and sudden fluctuations in salinity. “We also want to highlight the importance of conserving these grasslands, which often conflict with shellfish interests, since one of the common practices is the elimination of Zostera in these areas,” emphasize Celia Olabarria and Elsa Vázquez, principal researchers of the project.
With a budget of €211,750, the project aims to provide information that facilitates comprehensive and efficient management of shellfish resources in intertidal beds of Zostera noltei in a context of climate change in which extreme events will be more frequent and intense. “They are breeding, maintenance and refuge areas for juveniles of various vertebrate and invertebrate species and are involved in nutrient recycling and sediment stabilization, contributing to carbon sequestration, climate change mitigation and the resilience of coastal ecosystems”, they explain. Despite all these advantages, “due to anthropogenic impacts, many of the seagrass meadows are in decline. In Galicia, shellfish harvesting and the conservation of Zostera beds can come into conflict, since it is common to eliminate the plant considering that it interferes with shellfishing activities and considering that in areas of high plant density there are few shellfish resources”.
Economic value of different seagrass beds
The project is also completed with a socio-economic aspect, as it will try to estimate the economic value of the different seagrass beds according to their function as a nursery and/or habitat for adult clam specimens and their capacity to buffer adverse environmental conditions derived from extreme events.
For all this, the research group has the collaboration of the fishermen’s guilds and their technical assistance from Cambados, Noia and Combarro, who provide their perspective on the problem between shellfishing and the maintenance of Zostera meadows, in addition to helping in the experimental part of the project by facilitating access and maintenance of the experiments in the shellfish banks of Sarrido (Cambados), Testal (Noia) and Combarro and providing juveniles of the clam species for laboratory experiments. They also contribute with workshops and surveys that are carried out within the project within its socio-economic aspect.
EcoCost also collaborates in this project with the Biodiversity and Conservation Area of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and with senior researchers from the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of South Carolina. The socio-economic part is led by Sebastián Villasante, from the Department of Applied Economics of the University of Santiago de Compostela.
The research activity of the Ecocost group has the support of the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union, through its co-financing under the FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020 Operational Program.
Source: DUVI
