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An estimated 80 percent of life on earth depends on healthy oceans and coasts.
Humans, as well, depend on marine areas for food, medicines and protection from storms, among other resources.
Much focus from The Nature Conservancy has recently been on the protection and restoration of marine habitats around the world – their sheer importance to human and animal life demands it.
Mike Beck, senior scientist at the Conservancy, discusses with Nature.org his study, which focuses on marine habitat protection in Europe – where the water isn’t as warm and the sea life not as bright as in tropical marine areas – and why we need to protect the seascapes on our temperate coastlines.
Nature.org: This is the second study in two months from The Nature Conservancy discussing how marine areas need increased protection. Why are we seeing so much attention paid to this issue now?
Mike Beck: Well, everybody who's anybody wants to work and live on the sea! More seriously, the issue is that most of the world’s population does in fact live near the coast, and we have a responsibility to ensure the sustainability of these coasts for ourselves and marine biodiversity.
There has been a growing recognition over the past 10-15 years that the seas are in trouble and that the conservation and management community has often neglected them. Despite the growing attention, marine conservation is still a couple of decades behind terrestrial conservation.
Nature.org: Your study notes that “the value of the services provided by seagrasses, estuaries and coastal wetlands is estimated to be 10 times higher than that of any terrestrial ecosystem.” So why do terrestrial systems have a much higher rate of protection?
Mike Beck: We've been able to take marine areas for granted, even though most of the world's cities are built around coasts, bays and estuaries and their habitats.
For many centuries, we have managed to use these resources relatively sustainably, and so we still extract significant resources such as wild fish and services from the remaining natural habitats (instead of, for example, industrial farms). And we rely on these habitats and ecosystems for many services including food, recreation and nutrient cycling. But those days are coming to a close in many areas.
Nature.org: You also say that research on temperate marine habitats lags research of tropical ones — why is that?
Mike Beck: Frankly, tropical marine environments are easier to work in than temperate ones. For example, I have to wear a one-inch thick wetsuit and 40 pounds of extra weight to dive in the cold, murky waters of northern California…and I can last underwater for just a few hours. That’s a big difference from my tropical "business suit," and so it is a lot easier to collect data in tropical environments.
There are many great marine labs on temperate coasts, but their data is highly decentralized and difficult to access.
Nature.org: When we think of Europe, marine areas are not likely to be the first thing that pops into our mind — certainly not the “wetlands and sea grass meadows” the report mentions. Where are these areas of Europe, and how are they threatened?
Mike Beck: Well, Europe is and was much like the eastern United States and Gulf of Mexico in terms of the distribution of coastal wetlands. Seagrass, marsh, and shellfish occur throughout the coastal waters of all European countries — from Finland and Sweden to Italy and Greece.
These habitats are threatened across the board in virtually all countries, and much of that threat is because of millennia of human civilization and extensive development and resource use. For example, some of the worst losses of wetlands in Italy occurred during Roman times (when lions also roamed the countryside).
Nature.org: Given all of this, are European marine habitats the “great unknown” for conservation science?
Mike Beck: No, we actually know quite a bit about these habitats in Europe, but that knowledge has largely been on a country-by-country basis. This report brings together diverse datasets to paint a comprehensive picture of the state of these habitats.
Nature.org: Your study found that 80 percent of Europe’s coastal habitat has been lost. What are the primary drivers of that loss? And what have been the economic impacts? Is there anyway it can be restored?
Mike Beck: The drivers have changed a bit over time, but for most habitats coastal development and associated impacts from dredging to coastal defenses (e.g., seawalls) have the greatest overall impact.
“There have been huge investments in coastal protection from breakwaters to sea walls and many of these might have been avoided if some of these coastal habitats had been better protected.”—Mike Beck, senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy |
There have been huge investments in Europe to ‘defend’ their coasts from storms and flooding with breakwaters and sea walls and many other hardened and unnatural shorelines. But much of this investment might have been avoided if some of coastal habitats had been better conserved to provide natural barriers—for storms and for biodiversity. There has also been substantial loss of fisheries, growing dead zones and pollution issues throughout Europe.
Nature.org: Is there any way these habitats can be restored and conserved?
There are a number of areas where some of these habitats remain in decent condition and have even increased. For instance, seagrasses have increased in many Northern European countries following severe diebacks from disease in the 1930s. Yet they are still at lower abundances than in the past.
Right now the countries along the eastern Adriatic represent very important conservation opportunities. For example, there are very significant seagrass meadows on the Dalmation coast of Croatia, but investment and coastal development are returning rapidly as that country stabilizes. There is a crucial need for sensible coastal policies as well as more marine protected areas on that coast.
Nature.org: Can we apply any of the lessons learned in this report to the United States?
Mike Beck: Most people do not recognize that the marine diversity in the eastern United States and Europe sit in the same marine realm, the Temperate North Atlantic. Most folks in Bayou la Batre, Alabama might not think of themselves and Venice as having much in common, but in terms of coastal biodiversity, they definitely do.
We have a real responsibility to increase marine conservation and restoration of our eastern United States coastal habitats before it is too late if we are to make advances towards our goals in the Temperate North Atlantic Realm.
Nature.org: The Conservancy doesn't have a strong presence or history in Europe — so why did we do this report?
Mike Beck: I was trying to figure out how I could have carpaccio and limoncello on the Adriatic Sea as part of my job!
More seriously, this report has been part of our ongoing project to better understand how and where The Conservancy can meaningfully contribute to temperate marine conservation. We have similar studies ongoing throughout the temperate environments of the whole northern hemisphere — that is, basically the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, Canada, China, Russia and Europe.
Nature.org: Europe seems to be ahead of the curve on many environmental issues — notably climate change. Where do they stand on conservation issues?
Mike Beck: Europe is a union of many nations and perspectives on conservation. Some of the northern European countries (e.g., Norway) are way ahead of the United States in conservation. Others (such as Italy) are still just growing a conservation ethic; they have used the lands and waters so intensively for millennia that conserving natural environments is difficult for many citizens to imagine.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Giorgio Benelli (Adriatic Coast); Photo © Mike Beck (Mike Beck).
