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This ocean place will help protect the planet, but we need to do something to help it · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Coastal ecosystem health is extremely important in protecting the ocean, and one
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  of those coastal ecosystems is seagrass.
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  It supports fisheries, stores carbon and protects coastlines.
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  But we still cannot agree on how to measure whether it
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  is healthy or disappearing.
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  If we can't measure it properly, how can we protect it at all?
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  We're gonna be diving into the ways of measuring why it's so important
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  to have one way or just two or three ways of measuring and keeping that
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  consistent around the world so we can properly identify whether it's
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  trending upwards or downwards.
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  On this episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody.
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  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, Marine biologist and science communicator
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  here to tell you what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for
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  the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.
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  On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about seagrass, but we're
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  going back into the ways of measuring.
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  We talked about eDNA last week.
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  Today we're gonna be talking about ways of measuring seagrass, but in
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  a way where it's actually consistent across all seagrass habitats, and
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  we're gonna talk about why that's so important in their protection.
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  But first, before we get into that, let's talk about what seagrasses are.
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  They are a plant, an aquatic plant that goes underwater that is a vitally
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  important coastal habitat to not only biodiversity, but fisheries, production,
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  water quality, and carbon storage.
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  It matters because without these habitats, we lose a vital habitat
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  that will protect the ocean.
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  These areas of biodiversity, of fisheries production, of better water quality, of
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  carbon storage, these are areas that are gonna help us in just being with the ocean
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  and making sure that it's stable, making sure that we reduce climate change, making
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  sure that we can eat from it, making sure that we can have a lot of biodiversity,
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  like I said, to keep it stable.
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  So this is how we protect the ocean.
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  However, there are certain habitats that get a little bit
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  more attention than others.
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  And you can argue that seagrasses take a backseat to, I don't know, a
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  habitat like coral reefs maybe.
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  And look, coral reefs are very important as well.
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  They're extremely abundant in certain places, or they used to be.
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  And they were a huge tourist attraction for a lot of people, a lot of countries.
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  They provide a lot of fish.
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  They provide a lot of diversity.
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  However, they are very, very narrow in terms of their ability to stand change.
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  And so when change happens, like you see in the ocean right now with very
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  different and varying temperatures,
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  we're seeing different PHs and varying PHs, coral habitats tend to kind of
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  go wonky and tend to bleach or die off, and we're seeing that a lot.
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  And without these habitats that are around it to help supply them
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  with the biodiversity that's needed with the animals that are needed
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  to help these coral reefs thrive.
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  Because with coral reefs, if you get algae that grow over the corals,
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  you're not gonna get many corals.
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  It'll suffocate the corals.
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  The corals won't get the light that they need to use to photosynthesize
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  and be able to build their skeleton over and over and over again.
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  I would go into the science, but we're not talking about coral reefs.
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  We're talking about seagrasses.
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  So if algae overgrow corals, and the fish that are eat the algae aren't there, then
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  we're not gonna have many corals around.
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  The fish that eat the algae, a lot of the times they're juvenile or smaller
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  little sections or life history cycles are usually being protected in seagrass
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  habitats and the biology exchange between corals and seagrasses and even
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  mangroves and other coastal habitat is extremely important when we see that.
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  Also, there are salt marshes in more temperate areas.
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  There's mudflats.
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  These are all in very important coastal habitats.
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  But today we're gonna be focusing in on seagrasses.
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  Like I said before, the amount of services that seagrass
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  provides are extremely important.
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  Without seagrasses, we have crappy water quality.
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  We have less fish, and we have less biodiversity, and
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  we have less carbon storage.
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  The amount of carbon that seagrasses will absorb is four to
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  10 times more than a tree on land.
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  That's how important these meadows are.
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  That's how important these plants are to our oceans for a number of
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  different reasons, but even just for climate change in itself.
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  The way that we protect these places is not just to restore them
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  once they're gone, but it's to protect them when they're there.
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  And to be able to protect them, we have to know what is there.
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  We have to be able to measure them properly and be able to protect 'em
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  across all different places within that nation, within a coastline or even
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  in different nations internationally.
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  We have to be able to measure them the same way.
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  And that's what the focus of this episode is on is measuring consistently across
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  habitats like for seagrass habitats across coastlines, across national
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  borders and international borders.
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  These are such something that's extremely important to measure properly.
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  seagrass Montes, it varies widely and it really happens based on the people
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  that are around, the expertise that they have, the money that they have, and
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  the ability to get out into the ocean.
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  The ocean can be a very dangerous place.
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  Luckily, a lot of these places are on the coast, but still can be very
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  dangerous to get out to certain places.
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  Some of them are very remote and it could be dangerous to get out there.
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  Some of 'em are very expensive to get out there.
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  So that varies depending on the geography, depending on the country, if they have
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  the money to go out and do this, or even just the funding that's available to
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  them to go out and do this type of work.
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  Now when you have countries that are doing different methods, and we'll talk
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  about the methods in a second, we will have differing ways of like accuracy.
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  We're gonna have different ways of biases.
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  So every method will have different biases.
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  Let's get into some of those methods.
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  So we have quadrat-based field surveys, which is basically
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  a square that's put down
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  of, usually it's like a PVC pipe in a square.
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  It's put down all over the seagrass, and then you count the number of
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  plants that are in that seagrass.
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  Sometimes you can count the species.
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  So the quadrat sizes can vary widely.
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  The cover estimates may be continuous percentages or bin categories, such as
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  like different methods and different scores, which can be inconsistent
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  across these different scores.
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  The observer that's judging them can be very different.
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  And some surveys will record species level cover and others will just do total cover.
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  So the, data that's done through these quadrat-based field surveys
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  are not done consistently.
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  Then you have photoquadrats, which is basically you have a photo.
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  You, decipher a quadrat or video transact, and then you decipher a quadrat.
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  And then you count what's ever in there.
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  Now sometimes the image resolution and camera angle can vary, so
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  that makes it a little different.
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  Different annotation methods are used, so, such as point counts or pixel
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  classification or broadbands, which even though they're digital, it makes
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  it very inconsistent across the methods.
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  Understory or rare species are often missed in this type of way.
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  And so, we have remote sensing from satellites or drones,
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  which can be very expensive.
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  Again, you're looking at different centers have different potentials
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  for spatial and spectral resolutions.
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  Classifications, algorithms are very widely.
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  And so there's a lot of problems.
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  We just have field-based parameters or mapping with GPS.
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  It's just there's so many different ways of identifying things and
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  it can be very inconsistent across
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  different, you know, labs that are doing the work, the nonprofit
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  organizations are doing the work.
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  Sometimes you're doing it through a citizen conservation project, the
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  Citizen Science Conservation Project.
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  So, the people who are identifying the species or the total cover have
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  different methodologies of doing things or may not do it perfectly.
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  And so that becomes a problem when we're starting to look at how we are judging
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  the health of seagrasses across the world.
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  Not only in one section of One nation, one region, one
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  nation, but also across nations.
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  So it can be very difficult.
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  Now the thing is, is seagrasses have become an Essential
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  Ocean Variable, an EOV.
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  So what does that mean?
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  We are gonna go into it because it's something that's really, really important.
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  So an Essential Ocean Variable or an EOV is a small, carefully chosen set of ocean
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  measurements that scientists agree are the most important things we need to measure
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  consistently to understand how the ocean is changing and support decision making.
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  So once we start to see how these seagrass meadows are changing over time,
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  we can actually put in place management decisions or policies
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  to actually help out this.
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  Now why was this important, or why was seagrasses designated as an EOV?
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  Well, it does two things.
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  One, it's critically important for society and ecosystems.
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  And two, it is feasible to observe repeatedly at large
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  scales using existing methods.
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  So that's a pretty good reason to have them there.
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  So the big thing is, is they're comparable, they're
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  repeatable, and it's usable data.
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  That's the big thing why EOVs are so important.
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  Now, here's the thing.
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  They identified three core measurements that will be good to measure across
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  nations and across seagrass Meadows.
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  There's seagrass aerial extent where seagrass exists
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  and how much area it covers.
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  Seagrass percentage cover how dense or sparse the seagrass
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  is in on the sea floor.
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  Seagrass species composition, which species are present, and why it matters
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  for the resilience and ecosystem services.
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  So some species are a little bit more resilient than others, so if there is ones
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  that are not resilient that are present, and it's only those, then maybe that needs
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  a little bit more protection than the ones that are a little bit more resilient.
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  So together, these give a proper picture of what the seagrass
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  is in and how it's doing.
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  So if you have the looking at the aerial extent, you're
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  looking at how much it covers.
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  Well, if you look at the actual, like the space that it covers, that's
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  a huge indicator of like, if it grows, that means it's doing well.
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  If it starts to shrink, that's means it's not doing well.
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  When you have the percent cover, you're looking at the patchiness
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  within the seagrass meadow.
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  If it starts to become patchy within there, meaning that it's starting
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  to get sparse within the area.
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  There's something going on within the area that's either eating the seagrass
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  or it's, really degradating it inside.
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  So that's something that we have to look at.
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  And of course, species composition, what seagrass species is present.
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  That's really an important aspect.
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  I just mentioned it.
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  If it's more resilient or less resilient, it's something
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  that's very important for you.
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  It whether it will continue to provide ecosystem services on the long term.
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  So once you have the standardized method and understanding that these are the
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  three methods that we can use, you're able to look at how management decisions
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  will help these seagrass meadows, right?
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  Because we're looking at, well, we want this thing to grow an aerial extent, or we
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  want it to be very dense within that area.
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  'cause that'll provide more biodiversity.
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  We want these species to be protected depending on what's present.
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  Obviously the more diverse, the better.
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  But we need to make sure that these are all looked at from a policy level and it's
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  easy to measure and assess their health.
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  When we have this type of data across all different types of sea
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  meadows and habitats and regions and countries, we start to get a better
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  understanding of health overall.
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  If everything is measured differently and we can't really compare,
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  it's like apples to oranges.
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  It's not good.
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  You need apples to apples or oranges to oranges, then you'll be able
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  to say, comparing to this area.
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  This one's doing really well or not doing really well.
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  And if we see, look at ones in France, well, if we actually did
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  some work in here, we can really rebuild it and it can be really great.
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  I'm just using France as an example.
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  Nothing bad with France.
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  I'm sure there's some ones that are doing really well, Meadows
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  and some that need to be restored.
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  The way we measure seagrass is not just important for international frameworks
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  or for policies, but it's important for scientists to be able to compare how the
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  seagrass is doing within their study area compared to how seagrass is doing outside.
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  That's the really, the big thing when it comes to it.
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  We can actually compare to see what different disturbances are causing
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  growth or causing a reduction in seagrass cover, species composition and so forth.
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  Now here's the thing.
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  As we start to get better with technology, satellites, drones, AI, and machine
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  learning, these technologies are really gonna help us with monitoring.
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  So for instance, there is a project out in Australia on the Great Barrier
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  Reef that actually helps monitor using AI, like, how well and how
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  much cover there is in specific photographs of the Great Barrier Reef.
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  So essentially it's a citizen science program.
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  You can go on the website, I'll put the link in the show notes.
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  You can go on a website.
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  You sign up for an account And then you can do like four or five in a
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  row in like 10 minutes, not even.
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  And what the AI does is demarcates an area was like, I think this has coral cover.
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  And then you say, what type of coral cover?
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  It's a boulder, whether it's like a flat like plate coral or
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  whether it's a branching coral.
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  And then that data goes to someone else.
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  That picture gets looked at five times by five different people.
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  And then they look at what the results are.
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  It goes to a great barrier Reef Monitoring program where
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  people can look at more data.
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  'cause that's really what it comes down to.
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  You need more data that's standardized that we can do it.
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  And even though it doesn't provide accurate, like to the centimeter kind
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  of data, it provides really good data to make better management decisions on.
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  And that's really what it comes down to.
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  Sometimes, the most accurate data or the best resolution is not the best thing to
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  do for management of seagrasses across a country or a nation or internationally.
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  So what we need next is we need broader acceptance or adoption of
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  these shared monitoring standards.
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  This paper that I'm talking about today that this whole thing is based
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  on really calls for that adoption of these shared monitoring standards.
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  So hopefully there's incentives for open data sharing, which is gonna
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  be really important when we're able to standardize these methodologies
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  and more people can use them.
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  These are easier things to measure than a lot of other
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  things that have been used before.
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  And you can see a little bit more collaboration between researchers,
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  managers, and policy makers.
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  One of the reasons why I do this podcast is because I can take research
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  that's being done in a research papers that are behind paywalls.
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  This one was freely available, which is great.
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  Most of them are behind paywalls because it's really hard
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  to get them outta paywalls.
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  You have to pay a lot of money and that the researchers don't have.
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  And so managers don't get access to these papers and don't get access to
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  something as important as standardizing methods so they can make better
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  management decisions for managers.
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  I've done episodes on this before, the crazy thing about peer reviewed
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  papers and journal articles is they're not available for everybody.
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  They're not very inclusive.
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  They're actually very exclusive.
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  So really what it comes down to is like if we want to protect habitats,
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  we need to make sure that we are all measuring it the same way.
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  They may not be the best measurements, they may not give you the UpToDate
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  and most experienced way of looking at how to protect seagrasses.
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  But what they do is they give us a base and they give us enough information
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  for people to make management decisions and compare and contrast different
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  seagrass Meadows around the world.
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  And that's what's really needed right now.
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  We don't know a lot about seagrasses.
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  We have very little knowledge on the extent of seagrasses around the world.
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  And there's programs like SeagrassSpotter where people can measure their
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  own seagrasses and the extent and everything and put it into a database
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  and it goes into a map where people could get more information on that.
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  It's just a great citizens science project that's put on by my friends
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  over at the seagrass project.
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  But we need more of that.
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  We need standardized data to make sure that everything is done properly.
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  And so without this type of measuring, without these standards, we
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  are not in good shape to protect seagrasses around the world.
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  And so this is a foundational step towards protecting coastal ecosystems
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  for coastal ecosystem health.
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  It's really, really important.
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  So what I would like to encourage is listeners to see monitoring and
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  data as part of conservation action.
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  If you're able to fund small organizations or large organizations that do this type
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  of work, that do restoration, that do monitoring, this is really important.
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  The Seagrass Project is a great organization that does a lot of
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  restoration, that does a lot of monitoring, and they also test instruments
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  to help with monitoring, to help with seed propagation and all that kinda stuff.
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  It is so, so important to help these organizations like Seagrass Project.
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  I'll put a link to the show notes with for them, and that will be really
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  important to be able to support groups like that and seagrass organizations
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  like that because seagrass is, like I said at the beginning, are important
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  for a lot of different things.
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  Biodiversity support, fish production, carbon sequestration,
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  and of course water quality control.
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  So that's very, very important.
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  So, that's it for today's episode.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the ocean Podcast.
• 15:02
  If you wanna subscribe or follow, you could do so on YouTube.
• 15:05
  I'd love to hear your comments if you wanna put a comment on YouTube.
• 15:08
  Also, if you want to leave a comment, you're listening to an audio, go
• 15:11
  to speak up for blue.com/feedback.
• 15:13
  I'd love to hear what you think.
• 15:15
  And of course you can always catch me on the next episode of the
• 15:18
  How to Protect the ocean Podcast.
• 15:19
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the True nor Strong and free.
• 15:22
  Have a great day.
• 15:22
  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.