Structural Changes of Seagrass Seascapes Driven by Natural and Anthropogenic Factors: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Seascape ecology has been widely applied to marine habitats, including seagrass meadows, through various approaches all over the world for the past 30 years. However, these methods mainly study seagrass meadows on a single spatial scale and monitor a single driver of heterogeneity. Additionally, few assess the seascape's structural evolution. This creates gaps between the scientific data provided and those required by environmental managers and stakeholders in charge of seagrass meadow conservation. To meet their expectations, in this paper we developed a new multidisciplinary approach based on the coupling of mapping techniques, particle flux, and biometric investigations in a Mediterranean Bay, the Calvi Bay (Corsica, France), to assess the structural changes of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile meadows subject to disturbances. We focused our investigations on the structural characteristics, the spatial dynamics, and the particle fluxes of natural sand areas generated by bottom currents and dead matte patches which ensued from anchoring damages at 10, 15, and 20 m depth. Natural sand patches and anchoring patches differed in size, the first the largest. They also displayed different erosion-colonization dynamics. Natural sand patches were eroded at a mean speed of 12 cm.a(-1) and colonized at a rate of 7 cm.a(-1). Anchoring patches showed a mean erosion speed of 3.5 cm.a(-1) and a colonization rate of 6.5 cm.a(-1). Regarding particle fluxes, continuous meadow, and natural patch sedimentation and resuspension rates were 3.7 gDw.m(-2).d(-1) and 4.1 gDw.m(-2).d(-1) in average, respectively. In contrast, anchoring patches at 20m depth acted as sediment traps (112.60 gDw.m(-2).d(-1) in winter) and showed a higher particle resuspension rate. Our results highlighted the dichotomous dynamics of seagrass seascapes influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors. Thus, the smallest anchoring patch will take about 27 years to be recolonized while the biggest requires 60 years to be covered by the plant. With an upscaling approach, together with the newest mapping tools of marine habitats, we suggest a new method to study the evolution of seagrass meadows at a large spatial scale.