Abstract
Due to anthropogenic pressures, coastal ecosystems are being rapidly degraded and can undergo regime shifts associated with loss of ecosystem services. Theory and modeling indicates that interactions between systems through species movements at a landscape level are crucial for the resilience of coastal ecosystems, and that ecology and management therefore must be scaled up. In this project I will investigate the importance of landscape connectivity between two common but threatened European coastal systems – soft-bottom seagrass beds and hard-bottom macroalgal beds – for ecosystem functioning and resilience to anthropogenic disturbances. By integrating theories from various disciplines, and using comparative, experimental and modeling approaches, I will investigate how distance between systems affects (a) the spread and distribution of seagrasses, potentially harmful macroalgal epiphytes and keystone grazers, (b) how these patterns affect the resilience of seagrass beds to eutrophication and overfishing, and; (c) how such knowledge can be incorporate into management. By basing my project at MARBEE (Groningen University), a world-leading group on seagrass and macroalgal ecology including resilience research, and conducting modeling together with M. Scheffer (Wageningen University), I will be able to develop and test theories on connectivity-resilience relationships, and ultimately produce management guidelines to increase resilience of European coastal systems.
Sweden