Seagrass restoration in Sweden – Zostera marina

Here is an outreach video of our restoration work on seagrass (Zostera marina) in the Swedish West coast. Two versions are available in English and Swedish.

Version in English

Version in Swedish

Seagrass beds play a key role in Swedish coastal ecosystems for marine biodiversity and natural resources by providing habitat and food for a number of organisms, including several commercial species. These ecosystems are presently impacted by eutrophication, and over 50% of the seagrass has been lost from the Swedish NW coast. Because of slow horizontal growth and possibly due to local regime shifts, natural recovery of eelgrass may not occur even if growing conditions improve.

We are currently working to assess if transplantation of live seagrass could be used for restoration of seagrass ecosystems in Sweden, both to restore eelgrass in areas where it has been lost, and to establish seagrass in new areas to compensate for habitat lost to coastal exploitation. Using a multidisciplinary team of scientist and managers, and a combination of model and empirical studies, we aim to (1) identify environmental threshold conditions for eelgrass survival, and potential feed-back mechanism that prevent the return of seagrass, and (2) evaluate a number transplantation methods successfully used in other parts of the world to find the best methods for Swedish conditions. Based on these results, and in dialog with coastal managers, we are developing a detailed management guideline regarding methods for site-selection, transplantation and evaluation of results for eelgrass restoration in Sweden

The interdisciplinary research group called ZORRO group (Zostera Restoration) consists of marine ecologists, environmental legal scholars and environmental economists from the University of Gothenburg, in cooperation with the Country Administrative Board of Västra Götaland län and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water management. The goal of the ZORRO team is to improve the environmental status of shallow coastal ecosystems through the development of new methods for the management and restoration of seagrass habitats in Sweden. The program has five objectives:

1. Identify the legal and ecological causes to the loss and lack of recovery of seagrass habitats
2. Develop cost-effective methods for large-scale restoration of seagrass ecosystems
3. Assess the legal, ecological, and economic aspects of compensatory restoration of seagrasses
4. Develop a detailed manual for the restoration of Swedish seagrass ecosystems
5. Provide recommendations for revising the current regulations to ensure a more sustainable management of shallow coastal ecosystems in Sweden

More information in the ZORRO webpage:  www.gu.se/zorro