Global high-resolution mapping of seagrass to support conservation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Peng, Jianghai; Li, Jiwei; Krause, Johannes R.; Lyons, Mitchell B.; Murray, Nicholas J.; Schill, Steven R.; Roelfsema, Chris M.; Asner, Gregory P.
• 署名单位: Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; Arizona State University; Arizona State University-Tempe; State University System of Florida; Florida International University; University of New South Wales Sydney; James Cook University; Nature Conservancy; University of Queensland
• 刊物名称: NATURE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10704-3
• 发表日期: 2026-07-16
• 关键词: COASTAL

摘要

Seagrass ecosystems underpin coastal biodiversity1 and provide vital ecosystem services, including shoreline protection2, food security3 and climate mitigation4. Despite growing recognition as a nature-based climate solution, seagrasses are among the least mapped and most poorly understood vegetated coastal ecosystems5. Here we present, to our knowledge, the first global 10-m spatial resolution maps and change analysis of seagrass extent in clear, shallow coastal waters, derived from 4.75 million Sentinel-2 MSI satellite images for two periods (2019-2020 and 2023-2024). Using a deep-learning classifier trained on curated reference data, we identified 148,506 km2 of seagrass globally, including 5,961 km2 of intertidal and 142,545 km2 of subtidal areas. Sixty-nine per cent of global seagrass extent is concentrated in The Bahamas, Cuba, the USA, Australia and Indonesia, yet only 21% of seagrass areas are located within marine-protected areas. Over the 4 years of the study, 5,969 km2 (4%) of seagrass was lost, and an additional 6,221 km2 (4.2%) was degraded from dense to sparse cover in tropical regions. Our findings identify seagrass meadow hotspots and vulnerable regions to inform conservation and climate policy.