Abstract
Seagrass habitats play a key role for the production and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. On the Swedish west coast, almost 60% of the eelgrass has been lost in the last decades, which has passed largely unnoticed. However, with the implementation of EU Directives, no further degradation of coastal habitats will be allowed, and potentially costly measures will be needed to restore degraded habitats. Sweden is presently ill prepared for this challenge since the causes to the eelgrass loss are unclear, and restoration methods are missing. Moreover, present Swedish legislation appears dysfunctional to prevent degradation of coastal habitats, and the legislation for compensatory restoration is undeveloped. In the proposed interdisciplinary project we aim to increase the ecological and legal understanding of habitat degradation to develop a functional management system of marine habitats. We will conduct a combination of review, field and model studies with the objectives to (1) identify the legal and biological causes to the present loss of eelgrass and lack of recovery, (2) assess the legal and ecological constraints and possibilities of compensatory mitigation, (3) develop cost effective methods for restoration of eelgrass ecosystems, and (4) develop an alternative preventive and reparative legislation that is based on non-degradation and restoration.
Sweden