the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Global dataset on seagrass meadow structure, biomass, production and reproduction
- 1Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research and School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, 270 Joondalup Dr, WA 6027, Australia
- 2Marine Science Program, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, 17 Dick Perry Ave, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia
- 3Biosfera, Associació d’Educació Ambiental, Catalonia, Spain
- 4Institut de Ciències del Mar, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- 5School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, 10 Chittaway Rd, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
- 6Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Blanes, Spain
- 1Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research and School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, 270 Joondalup Dr, WA 6027, Australia
- 2Marine Science Program, Biodiversity and Conservation Science, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, 17 Dick Perry Ave, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia
- 3Biosfera, Associació d’Educació Ambiental, Catalonia, Spain
- 4Institut de Ciències del Mar, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
- 5School of Environmental and Life Sciences, The University of Newcastle, 10 Chittaway Rd, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
- 6Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Blanes, Spain
Abstract. Seagrass meadows provide valuable socio-ecological ecosystem services, including a key role in climate change mitigation and adaption. Understanding the natural history of seagrass meadows across environmental gradients is crucial to decipher the role of seagrasses in the global ocean. In this data collation, spatial and temporal patterns in seagrass meadow structure, biomass, production and reproduction data are presented as a function of biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics. The biological traits compiled include measures of meadow structure (e.g., percent cover and shoot density), biomass (e.g., above-ground biomass), production (e.g., shoot production), and reproduction effort (e.g., flowering intensity and seed bank density). Categorical factors include bioregion, geotype (coastal or estuarine), genera and year of sampling. This dataset contains data extracted from peer-reviewed publications published between 1975 and 2020 based on a Web of Science search, and includes 15 data variables across 12 seagrass genera. The top four most studied genera are Zostera, Thalassia, Halophila and Cymodocea (80 % of data), and the least studied genera are Phyllospadix, Amphibolis and Thalassodendron (2.3 % of data). The data hotspot bioregion is the Tropical Indo Pacific (25 % of data), whereas data for the other five bioregions are evenly spread (ranging between 13 and 16 % of total data within each bioregion). From the data compiled, 39 % related to seagrass biomass, while the least number of data were related to seagrass production (10 % of data). This data collation can inform several research fields beyond seagrass ecology, such as the development of nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation, which include readership interested in blue carbon, engineering, fisheries, global change, conservation and policy.
Simone Strydom et al.
Status: final response (author comments only)
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CC1: 'Comment on essd-2022-160', Albert Pessarrodona Silvestre, 08 Aug 2022
Wonderful resource. Would be great to include some sort of metadata on when the measurments were taken given the well-established relationship between season and some of the variables (e.g. productivity). A similar output has just been published for macroalgae, which may bring us closer to examining the production of submerged vegetated habitats!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01554-5
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Simone Strydom, 10 Aug 2022
Thank you Albert for your positive feedback. Data on seasonality was initially sought during the review process, however it become apparent that this was not going to be possible because many articles did not report the date of data collection, therefore we could not be sure of season. Instead we focused on categorical variables that could be included for the majority of numerical variables compiled. For example, the dataset reports the year of data collection which could be useful for deciphering long-term temporal trends in seagrass structure, biomass, net primary production and reproduction variables, even if an effect of season cannot be delinated.
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AC1: 'Reply on CC1', Simone Strydom, 10 Aug 2022
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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2022-160', Anonymous Referee #1, 01 Sep 2022
This paper presents an interesting method to collate seagrass records from around the globe. However the search terms are a little too restrictive and there are useful papers that don’t seem to have been included. For examples a quick search using different search engine rather than just WOS finds other papers with suitable records, e.g.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X17303783
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/8/9/717
Also some grey-literature records could provide useful information, e.g.:
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC115082
The fact that a very quick internet search can find missing useful information suggest that a more comprehensive data search would greatly improve the usefulness of this work
The links to the database did not work in the preprint supplied so this has not been reviewed. -
RC2: 'Comment on essd-2022-160', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Sep 2022
This data set and its description is useful, and I can foresee its use in many different ways. My specific comments are as follows:
1. In the introductory paragraph about seagrass ecosystem functions and services, consider adding water purification/filtration to the list. Suggested references: Lamb et al 2017 (Science), Ascioti et al 2022 (Ecosystem Services).
2. In section 2.1 (literature search), the stated search terms did not include Syringodium, but this species was in the results. The term 'exten' in the search - should it be 'exten' or 'extent'?
3. In section 2.2, the last paragraph (line 120) seemed out of place because it described the way natural history reporting has evolved, not a method. You may want to consider moving this to the Results and Discussion section.
4. I found it difficult to differentiate between species because of the colour gradient in Figure 3 - the yellows/oranges in particular (Amphibolis, Cymodocea, Enhalus), were harder to make out than the rest. On this note, I'd suggest checking for the use of colorblind safe gradients in ColorBrewer (https://colorbrewer2.org/#type=sequential&scheme=BuGn&n=3). I think this map is useful for summarizing research hotspots and gaps at a glance, and it would be a shame if the reader did not get the full experience of it.
5. Section 4 (Line 196): there is a mismatch between the text and abstract. The text says, "...the least number of data was related to seagrass reproduction (9% of data)" but the abstract says it's production that has the least data points, at 10%.
6. Nice work in building this data set - this was a tremendous effort. I did notice some missing papers. In many of the papers with such seagrass data, the titles and keywords often don't use the search terms you've selected. We often use terms such as 'condition' or 'status', so this is possibly why some papers were not picked up in your search. Here are some additional papers that have the data you're after but are not in your list:
- Marba, N., Duarte, C. M., Terrados, J., Halun, Z., Gacia, E., & Fortes, M. D. (2010). Effects of seagrass rhizospheres on sediment redox conditions in SE Asian coastal ecosystems. Estuaries and Coasts, 33(1), 107-117. doi:10.1007/s12237-009-9250-0
- McKenzie, L. J., Yaakub, S. M., Tan, R., Seymour, J., & Yoshida, R. L. (2016). Seagrass habitats of Singapore: Environmental drivers and key processes. [ENV REQ]. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology(34), 60-77.
- Muta Harah, Z., Japar Sidik, B., & Hishamuddin, O. (1999). Flowering, fruiting and seedling of Halophila beccarii Aschers. (Hydrocharitaceae) from Malaysia. Aquatic Botany, 65(1-4), 199-207.
- Novak, A. B., Hines, E., Kwan, D., Parr, L., Tun, M. T., Win, H., & Short, F. T. (2009). Revised ranges of seagrass species in the Myeik Archipelago, Myanmar. Aquatic Botany, 91(3), 250-252. doi:10.1016/j.aquabot.2009.07.002
- Ooi, J. L. S., Kendrick, G. A., Van Niel, K. P., & Affendi, Y. A. (2011). Knowledge gaps in tropical Southeast Asian seagrass systems. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 92(1), 118-131. doi:doi:10.1016/j.ecss.2010.12.021
- Terrados, J., Duarte, C. M., Fortes, M. D., Borum, J., Agawin, N. S. R., Bach, S., . . . Vermaat, J. (1998). Changes in community structure and biomass of seagrass communities along gradients of siltation in SE Asia. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science, 46(5), 757-768.
Simone Strydom et al.
Simone Strydom et al.
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