Cross-border · Research, innovation and assessment · Germany
Lancaster-led study: protecting seabirds and native plants may help atolls face rising seas
Researchers headed by Lancaster University, with input from Bremen's ZMT, report in Science Advances on how seabird nutrients shape atoll islands and reefs, and what that means for coping with higher seas.
Why it matters: The Lancaster-led team reports that safeguarding seabirds and bringing back native plant cover could strengthen atoll islands against higher seas.
Science Advances has published a study by an international team headed by Lancaster University, to which Bremen's Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) also contributed.
The paper investigates what seabird-delivered nutrients do to atoll islands and the reefs nearby, and the consequences for how well these islands can cope as oceans climb.
The researchers say that safeguarding seabird populations and reviving native plant cover could aid atolls in adjusting to higher seas.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
The work concerns tropical atolls and their reefs; if its findings hold, then protecting seabirds and replanting native vegetation are options that could support those islands as sea levels go up.
