Over a decade monitoring Fiji's seagrass condition demonstrates resilience to anthropogenic pressures and extreme climate events

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 km2 of Fiji's shallow water habitats from literature and t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2020-11, Vol.160, p.111636-111636, Article 111636
Main Authors: McKenzie, Len J., Yoshida, Rudi L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropogenic factors
Archipelagoes
Community composition
Condition monitoring
Habitats
Management
Marine ecosystems
Monitoring
Resilience
Sea grasses
Seagrass
Seed banks
Seeds
Shallow water
Species composition
Threats
Water quality
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Summary: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 km2 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. •Fiji has six seagrass species and meadows cover at least 59.19 km2 of shallow waters.•Extreme climatic events and anthropogenic activities are threatening seagrass health.•We monitored seagrass condition at 8 sentinel sites and report no long-term trends.•Resilient meadows have moderate physiological resistance and high recovery capacity.•Managing for seagrass resilience will require an integrated hierarchical approach.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111636