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This layer shows the current known extent and distribution of Seagrass meadows in European waters, collated by EMODnet Seabed Habitats. The point and polygon layers were last updated in 2023.The purpose was to produce a data product that would provide the best compilation of evidence for the essential ocean variable (EOV) known as Seagrass cover and composition (sub-variable: Areal extent of seagrass meadows), as defined by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS). Seagrasses provide essential habitat and nursery areas for many marine fauna. There are approximately 72 seagrass species that belong to four major groups: Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae, Posidoniaceae and Cymodoceaceae. Zostera beds and Cymodecea meadows are named on the OSPAR Threatened or Declining Habitats list. Posidonia beds are protected under Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. The geographic extent of this product was extended in 2023 to include jurisdictional waters (including continental shelf and claimed extended continental shelf) of EU Member States, the United Kingdom (UK) and Norway including areas in the Caribbean Sea.
This data product is a work in progress. The original polygon file was produced by the 2017-2019 EMODnet Seabed Habitats consortium and the method is described in O'Keefe and Lillis (2019). The point file was first produced by the 2019-2021 EMODnet Seabed Habitats consortium and the method is described in Lillis (2021). Both layers were last updated in 2023 using a combination of data extracted from the EMODnet Seabed Habitat database (May 2023) and the UNEP-WCMC dataset: Global Distribution of Seagrasses. Only a subset of the UNEP-WCMC datasets were used in this product, namely in the areas of interest in the Caribbean Sea. The products were clipped to these areas and then combined with the EMODnet Seabed Habitats data. The attributes were amended to remove many fields that are redundant for this data layer e.g. taxonomic fields and areas. Information about the citation (renamed source) and the dataset IDs and habitat have been retained. Where overlaps in polygons occured preference was given to the habitat maps from survey collated by EMODnet Seabed Habitats.