Editorial: Global conservation of vulnerable, threatened and endangered seagrass

Introduction

Seagrasses are flowering marine plants that evolved from terrestrial ancestors about 100 million years ago. They spread to cover many shallow marine systems on all continents of the world, except Antarctica. Though seagrasses are simultaneously recognized as a model marine vegetation community and critical coastal marine and fisheries habitat, many vulnerable, threatened, and endangered seagrass species and subpopulations remain a black box when it comes to our understanding of basic taxonomy, biology, and biogeographical trends. Increasing global and climate changes are known to alter and destroy seagrass meadows significantly. Many researchers fear this is having a catastrophic impact on global seagrass conservation. Advancement in international collaborations, technological research and development and growth of socio-cultural networks are rapidly improving global reconnaissance and capabilities for recovery following loss. There is an urgent need to collate and highlight research, reviews, policy, and opinions aimed at advancing global seagrass species survival.

Seagrasses are represented by a relatively small number of species but are characterized by extensive seabed coverage and significance in coastal ecosystems as habitat builders, providing a broad range of ecosystem services, such as food supply, stabilization of coastlines and carbon sequestration (Duarte et al., 2025). While some seagrass beds are largely found growing in monoculture (for instance Zostera marina in the temperate north Pacific and Atlantic, and many regions have a common suite of widely distributed species(for example the tropical Indo-Pacific region), endemism is also common in some regions, e.g., Verduin and Waycott. There are also some species with limited distribution, leading to concerns about genetic diversity and species-level conservation. This is of particular concern as ecosystems restoration programs proliferate around the world.

Problems are compounded by lack of awareness and expertise to monitor seagrasses. Many seagrass populations have been inadequately documented and surveyed, which is often difficult due to turbidity, although advances in technology, especially remote sensing and global databases, including citizen science sources, have improved this situation in recent years, e.g., Trinh et al. (2023); Giménez-Romero et al. (2024); Konzewitsch and Evans (2024); Jones et al. (2025). Effective conservation is further compromised by the proximity of many seagrass meadows to shorelines, where they are vulnerable to human activities, especially in highly developed regions. A global increase in awareness of the ecological services provided by seagrass ecosystems has improved scientific effort in seagrass monitoring and science, leading to improved input into conservation policy and management, however, there are still many gaps in the records of seagrass distribution, abundance and condition, e.g., Zakaria et al., leading to imperfect assessments of seagrass populations.

The IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a science-based network of thousands of volunteer experts from almost every country in the world, all working together toward achieving the vision of a just world that values and conserves nature through positive action both to prevent loss and aid in the recovery of the diversity of life on earth. The commission publishes the ‘barometer of life’, which is statistically documenting an overall decline of global biodiversity as we advance through the sixth great mass extinction event in world history. The IUCN has developed a species conservation cycle framework (Assess, Plan, Act) to ‘Reverse the Red’ and document progress in species conservation and restoration. Importantly, the IUCN recognizes indigenous knowledge and localized socio-ecological conditions may have implications for extinction risk at regional and global levels. By reaching out to our broad membership of global seagrass researchers and organizations, the IUCN SSC Seagrass Species Group (SSG) aims to collect and share important taxonomic and biogeographical information and highlighting both urgent threats and opportunities. Our goal is to compile an open access collection of the most relevant research advancing outcomes for data deficient, vulnerable, threatened, and endangered seagrass species.

This Research Topic was initiated by the IUCN SSC Seagrass Specialist Group and solicited diverse global experts for contributions of current knowledge relevant to the conservation of data deficient, vulnerable, threatened, and endangered seagrasses. The five papers making up this topic describe research that addresses seagrass biology and ecology issues within a conservation and policy and management context.

Summary of findings and recommendations

While presenting diverse research about seagrass populations from across the globe, these five papers share a consistent message: effective seagrass conservation requires a combination of habitat protection, long-term monitoring, restoration, genetic conservation, and stronger policy frameworks. These key themes are expanded below, with associated recommended actions.

Protecting remaining seagrass habitats was identified as the highest conservation priority, with dredging and sand mining associated with coastal development and land reclamation being key threats. Coastal catchment use, including eutrophication and elevated turbidity from sediment inputs is shown to lead to poor water quality, further threatening integrity and conservation of seagrass ecosystems (Samper-Villarreal et al.; Zakaria et al.; Zakaria et al.; Mishra et al.). Vulnerable species such as Halophila beccarii are particularly at risk from these impacts, and there is an urgent need to protect estuarine and mangrove-associated habitats that support these species (Zakaria et al.; Mishra et al.).

A clear outcome of several papers in the Research Topic was the need for expansion of long-term monitoring programs (Samper-Villarreal et al.; Zakaria et al.; Zakaria et al.). The largely subtidal nature of seagrass meadows has long resulted in their perception as the “Ugly Ducklings” of marine conservation (Duarte, 2016) and the tangible outcome is a lack of effective and comprehensive monitoring of seagrass stocks and diversity.

The persistent decline of seagrass ecosystems in many parts of the world has led to increased research and implementation of active restoration and rehabilitation, to restore critical ecosystem services provided by seagrasses (Van Katwijk et al., 2016; Tan et al., 2020). Two of the papers in this topic addressed the need for restoration programs as part of a broader conservation strategy to improve outcomes for the vulnerable intertidal seagrass Halophila beccarii and more broadly for declining seagrass meadows (Zakaria et al.; Mishra et al.). Strategies such as monitoring and restoring sed banks and improving adaptive capacity were seen as essential to improving the longer-term prospects for vulnerable species in particular. A key approach to improving adaptive capacity is maintaining genetic diversity, with improved understanding of reproductive strategies and connectivity essential to improving conservation outcomes (Zakaria et al.; Mishra et al.; Verduin and Waycott). With a generally low number of seagrass species, all papers in the topic emphasized the need to priorities conservation of threatened and vulnerable species (Samper-Villarreal et al.; Zakaria et al.; Mishra et al.).

Underlying the numerous recommendations for on-ground research, protective conservation and direct management initiatives, is the need to strengthen governance and policy frameworks (Samper-Villarreal et al.; Mishra et al.). The need for updated assessments of extinction risks of seagrasses and seagrass ecosystems has never been greater, and the availability of new tools and collaborations provide the means to accomplish this. International shared governance approaches should be viewed as a means of improving bioregional assessment of species and ecosystems vulnerability (Samper-Villarreal et al.).

Increasing global recognition of the significance of seagrass ecosystems in protecting coastlines, sustaining food supply and biodiversity, and their role in sequestering carbon has improved funding for research and development, yet translation of the outcomes of this research into government policy has been slow. This collection of papers has highlighted ongoing research into key aspects of seagrass conservation with clear recommendations to improve management and conservation outcomes for these critical coastal ecosystems.

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Footnotes

Edited and reviewed by: David W. Inouye, University of Maryland, United States