Incorporating generalist seagrasses enhances habitat restoration in a changing environment

Coastal habitat-forming species provide protection and essential habitat for fisheries but their ability to maintain these services are under threat from novel stressors including rising temperatures. Coastal habitat restoration is a powerful tool to help mitigate the loss of habitat-forming species, however, many efforts focus on reintroducing a single, imperiled species instead of incorporating alternatives that are more conducive to current and future conditions. Seagrass restoration has seen mixed success in halting local meadow declines but could begin to specifically utilize generalist seagrasses with climate change-tolerant and opportunistic life history traits including high reproduction rates and rapid growth.
Here, we built on decades of successful eelgrass (Zostera marina) restoration in the Chesapeake Bay by experimentally testing seed-based restoration potential of widgeongrass (Ruppia maritima) – a globally distributed seagrass that can withstand wide ranges of salinities ..., Experimental evaluation of widgeongrass restoration techniques
Our study was conducted in Broad Bay in the Lynnhaven River system in Virginia Beach, VA, USA (36.90418 latitude, -76.03084 longitude) – a heavily human-influenced system (Sisson et al., 2010) where practitioners are actively managing the area to improve water and habitat quality through restoration of multiple habitats including seagrass. Our site was chosen based on a combination of available leasing space and environmental conditions including sediment characteristics adhering to Chesapeake Bay’s long-term, successful eelgrass restoration protocols (Marion and Orth 2010a, 2010b; Moore et al., 2014). Additionally, Lynnhaven River shorelines were historically vegetated with widgeongrass and eelgrass, but meadows experienced declines in the early 2000s and the last observation of seagrass was an eelgrass bed in 2012 (https://www.vims.edu/research/units/programs/sav/access/maps/). However, in May 2020, small patches of natura..., , This README file was generated on 2024-March-18 by Enie Hensel.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: Incorporating generalist seagrasses enhances habitat restoration in a changing environment

2. Author Information
Name: Enie Hensel
Institution: Virgina Institute of Marine Science
Address: Gloucester Point, VA
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

Name: Christopher J. Patrick,
Institution: Virgina Institute of Marine Science
Address: Gloucester Point, VA

Name: Stephanie J. Wilson
Institution: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Address: Edgewater, MD

Name: Bongkeun Song
Institution: Virgina Institute of Marine Science
Address: Gloucester Point, VA

Name: William G. Reay
Institution: Virgina Institute of Marine Science
Address: Gloucester Point, VA

Name: Robert J. Orth
Institution: Virgina Institute of Marine Science
Address: Gloucester Point, VA

3. Date of data collection...