UK Seagrass meadows: 90% gone.
Some cool facts about seagrass meadows:
No deep discussion of what's caused the declines. This article cites "the impact of coastal development on seagrass ecosystems, including eutrophication and habitat loss due to dredging, anchoring and coastal infrastructure".Seagrass flowers are pollinated by shrimps and other creatures, as well as water currents. The meadows can store carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and harbour up to 40 times more marine life than bare seabeds.
Also, UK moths: down a third in 50 years.
“This decline is worrying because moths play a vital role in our ecosystems,” said Richard Fox of Butterfly Conservation, which produced the report with Rothamsted Research and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. “They are pollinators of many plants, with some wildflowers, such as orchids, relying on visiting moths for reproduction. They also provide essential food for thousands of animal species, including bats and many familiar birds.”
According to Fox the prime driver for the declines is likely to be habitat loss and more intensive agriculture, including chemical farming, but other important factors include climate change and, possibly, increased nitrogen deposition and light pollution.
“No species will be totally immune from all these different factors,” he said. “Even moths living at the top of a Scottish mountain will be impacted by climate change and nitrogen deposition.”