UK intertidal oak forests: temperate mangrove analogues?

Coastal marine vegetated habitats provide nature-based solutions to the challenge of climate change. Globally, they are worth $190 billion a year in terms of blue carbon sequestration alone, and UK marine ecosystems store more than 200 million tonnes of carbon.1,2 Mangroves, saltmarsh, seagrass, and kelp are considered essential fish habitats. Other ecosystem services include coastal protection from erosion and rising sea levels, food production, nursery function for vulnerable and juvenile organisms, bioremediation, and environmental buffering providing stable niches for many vulnerable and juvenile macro-benthic species.3 Such services drive important trophic and nutrient pathways and help with connectivity, resilience, and robustness of marine ecosystems, all of which help mitigate climate change and improve the global economy.4 In the UK, saltmarsh, seagrass, and kelp habitats are disappearing at rates of 1 – 3 per cent per year, with studies reporting total losses of more than 80 per cent of these crucial habitats.5 No wonder, then, that we see catastrophic declines in biodiversity, fishery biomass, water quality, and environmental health in the UK. The losses of saltmarsh, seagrass, and kelp can be attributed to coastal development, eutrophication, dredging, and coastal squeeze, reducing environmental resilience and impacting local economies. 1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01089-4 2 https://www.mcsuk.org/ocean-emergency/climate-change/blue-carbon/ 3 Bioremediation uses microorganisms to degrade organic contaminants in soil, groundwater, sludge, and solids. 4 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0104 5 https://geoengineering.global/blue-carbon/