- October 16, 2024
We have just launched a journal club for the Project Seagrass team. These monthly meetups work much like a book club, members of the team each suggest a relevant scientific paper, vote on their favourite, then read the winning paper prior to meeting. During the journal club we critically discuss the paper and analyse how it relates to our own research.
Seagrass science is continually evolving, with researchers across the globe constantly pushing the boundaries of our understanding of how these dynamic ecosystems function and work. This journal club helps us keep abreast of new research, and as it’s held online keeps our team connected across our UK sites.
We launched this month with a paper integral to the core values of Project Seagrass: research, community and action. Seagrass meadows globally as a coupled social–ecological system: Implications for human wellbeing, published in 2013 by our CEO, Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth and our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Richard Unsworth, among others. Using this paper to launch Journal club allowed the team to focus on factors influencing the development of Project Seagrass, and to reflect on how our current work aligns with these.
The paper describes 7 globally spread case studies highlighting the intricate and dynamic relationship between seagrass and humans, to demonstrate the importance of a social-ecological approach in the field.
One reoccurring finding highlights the role of seagrass as a foundation marine species, and nursery ground as vital to subsistence fisheries (fishing for direct community nutrition). Practices such as gleaning (small scale collection of invertebrates from the intertidal using simple gear), and artisanal fin fishing were found key in providing food security and wellbeing for coastal communities, with the highlighted case studies evidencing seagrass decline. The human dependence on seagrass highlights the importance in understanding the associated decline in communities’ capacities for resilience when facing environmental changes. By viewing seagrass meadows as a coupled social-ecological system, projects can carve pathways supporting resilience for both seagrass and people, which in turn support each other.
Discussions focussed on a ‘knock before you enter’ approach, and the importance of carrying out stakeholder mapping and social science research to understand complex linkages. This knowledge coupled with ecological site assessments allows conservation and restoration efforts to align with local needs, ensuring social and ecological resilience into the future for seagrass projects.
You can access the paper at this link to explore the findings in more depth.
Our next journal club meets on the 5th of November, we look forward to sharing the paper and our thoughts on it then.
