Standard Presentation 2024 Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting combined with NZMSS

Identifying spatial dependencies of cross-habitat facilitative processes to achieve at scale seascape restoration (#285)

Maria L Vozzo 1 , M. Fernanda Adame 2 , Paul Branson 3 , Maddison Brown 1 4 , Christina A Buelow 5 , Joseph R Crosswell 1 , Kirk Dahle 6 , Christopher Doropoulos 1 , Ben L Gilby 7 , Francisco Martinez Baena 8 , Simon Reeves 9 , Vera Rullens 9 , Michael Sievers 5 , Brian Silliman 10 , Andy Steven 1 , Remment ter Hofstede 11 12 , Mark van Koningsveld 11 12 , Ziyu Xiao 1 , Megan I Saunders 13
  1. CSIRO Environment, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  2. Australian Rivers Institute, Centre for Marine and Coastal Research, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  3. CSIRO Environment, Crawley, WA, Australia
  4. School of the Environment, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
  5. Australian Rivers Institute, Centre for Marine and Coastal Research, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia
  6. The Nature Conservancy Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  7. School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Petrie, QLD, Australia
  8. Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Mosman, NSW, Australia
  9. The Nature Conservancy Australia, Carlton, VIC, Australia
  10. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
  11. Delft University of Technology, Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft, the Netherlands
  12. Van Oord DMC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
  13. CSIRO Environment, Hobart, TAS, Australia

Cross-habitat facilitative processes can enhance seascape connectivity and ecological functioning and resilience. Incorporating these processes may help scale-up urgent efforts to repair and restore seascapes; however, there remains uncertainty about the spatial dependencies of these processes and how they operate across different coastal habitat types. We used a multidisciplinary approach to synthesise the influence of key environmental parameters on six key processes underpinning cross-habitat facilitation: wave attenuation, sediment dynamics, nutrient processing, water filtration, carbon dynamics and alkalinity export, and animal- and plant-mediated facilitation. Following this, we identified the spacing between habitat types over which processes may be operating and considered the potential overlap of these processes within distances from 0 metres to 100,000 kilometres. We found that all six processes have been documented to occur at distances from 1-100 metres, and that at all spacings considered there was potential for at least three processes to overlap. Finally, we outline how this information can be used by practitioners seeking to incorporate cross-habitat facilitation when designing seascape restoration projects. These results demonstrate how cross-disciplinary approaches can inform seascape restoration efforts, and ultimately, help scale-up marine and coastal restoration to meet national and international goals.