Seagrass meadows are threatened by expected loss of peatlands in Indonesia

Seagrass meadows provide one of the most productive stores of carbon in our oceans. They also support marine biodiversity and global food security through their role as fish nurseries and fish foraging grounds. Globally, their rate of loss is at least as high as that experienced by tropical rainforests. In SE Asia, due to a paucity of long-term data it is difficult to assign such rates of change, but significant loss has occurred, possibly up to 40% (Tomascik et al., 1997; Nadiarti et al., 2012). Risks to these meadows continue, with urban development (including coastal development and run-off) being one of the major risks in the region (Unsworth & Cullen, 2010; Grech et al., 2012). Seagrass meadows in Indonesia have also lost their trophic balance due to overexploitation, placing their resilience to poor water quality at risk (Unsworth et al., 2014, 2015).