Ziggy Marzinelli1, Catalina Musrri1, Georgina Wood2, Adriana Vergés3, Alexandra Campbell4, Melinda Coleman5, Sebastian Vadillo Gonzalez1, Peter Steinberg3
1The University of Sydney, Australia - 2Flinders University, Australia - 3UNSW, Australia - 4University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia - 5NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Australia
Global habitat degradation has prompted an urgent need for efficient restoration strategies that are tailored to the right spatial scale. Applied nucleation is a restoration technique used in terrestrial forests that increases the extent of restoration while also minimising the resources needed. It starts with planting small tree patches (“tree islands”) in focal areas that set the trajectory for natural propagation and recovery, resulting in large-scale habitat restoration outcomes. This concept could provide a framework for the restoration of marine forests formed by seaweeds, which are declining at unprecedented scales, but the applicability of applied nucleation for seaweed forests has not been tested. We used the decline and 13-year restoration effort of crayweed (Phyllospora comosa) forests along 70km of coastline in Sydney, Australia, as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility and challenges associated with applied nucleation strategies in marine forests. Crayweed tree islands generally established and spread through time, but site-specific factors (e.g. wave action, herbivory, benthic cover) influenced initial colonisation and may determine expansion rates and the resources needed to maintain the trajectory for recovery. Small-scale efforts can lead to broader-scale revegetation in marine habitats, suggesting applied nucleation strategies may help seaweed forest restoration at scale.
Biography
Ziggy is an Associate Professor at The University of Sydney, where he leads a marine ecology and microbiology research group. Ziggy’s research integrates experimental ecology and environmental microbiology to understand the role host traits (e.g. genetics) and the microbiome play on the resilience of habitat-forming species. He uses this information to help develop management strategies, e.g. restoration of macrophytes.