Dynamic changes in seagrass assemblages under eutrophication and implications for recovery

Over the last 20 years, loss of seagrass beds, often related with increased eutrophication, became a common problem worldwide. In the Mondego estuary (Portugal), eutrophication has triggered serious biological changes, which led to an overall increase in primary production and to a progressive replacement of seagrass Zostera noltii beds by coarser sediments and opportunistic macroalgae. The effects of this eutrophication on benthic assemblages were studied along a spatial gradient in the Mondego estuary from 1993 to 1995. Over these short temporal and small spatial scales, distinct changes in the structure of the macrobenthic communities were observed. One of the main structural modifications was the decrease in species diversity along the eutrophication gradient and over time, with a marked impoverishment of the most disturbed inner area. Other changes included an increase in detritivores and a decline in herbivores together with a significant increase in small deposit-feeding polychaetes. In the long term, sustained eutrophication of this estuary is expected to lead to complete replacement of seagrass habitat by unvegetated coarser sediments, occasionally covered by green macroalgal blooms and dominated by opportunistic invertebrate taxa. Recovery from this situation may not only require reduction in nutrient loadings to the estuary, but also active seagrass restoration programmes to reverse the positive feedback processes thought to be presently taking place.