The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment has hosted the presentation of the “Atlas of the seagrass meadows of Spain”, the first national work published on the distribution and ecological status of the submerged forests of our coasts.

It is a collective work in which 84 experts from all the coastal Autonomous Communities, members of scientific institutions and administrations that have been involved in the study, management and protection of these valuable marine habitats for the last 40 years have participated. The Atlas has been prepared by the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Institute of Coastal Ecology (IEL), with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment.       

Seagrass meadows form important coastal ecosystems and are good indicators of the health of our beaches. This Atlas will be a fundamental tool to help marine spatial planning to preserve these essential habitats for the Spanish coast.

Marine angiosperms (or phanerogams) are plants adapted to live completely submerged in the sea, which occupy large areas of our seabed, the so-called “seagrass meadows”. They are priority conservation habitats included in national and European environmental regulations, the preservation of which is essential for the functioning of our marine ecosystems and the enormous biodiversity they host. Many of the key aspects that determine the importance and values of the Spanish coast depend on the existence of these seagrass meadows off our coast: the quality of the waters for tourism and aquaculture, the existence of beaches, fishing, diving, etc. They therefore have enormous socio-economic and cultural value, in addition to their exceptional ecological value.

The Atlas of the seagrass meadows of Spain collects all the useful information available on the distribution area of the five species of marine angiosperms that we have in Spain: Posidonia oceanica, Cymodocea nodosa, Zostera noltii, Zostera marina and Halophila decipiens. According to the information collected, there is a total of 1,618.69 km2 of seabed area occupied by these meadows in Spain. The meadows of Posidonia oceanica, endemic to the Mediterranean, are the most abundant and are known as “Algares”.     
     
The Atlas aims to become a useful tool to facilitate the work and efforts of scientists, technicians, administrations and NGOs in the management and conservation of seagrass meadows. The work carried out has made it possible to identify the problems and threats of the seagrass meadows of our coasts and, consequently, to determine the actions and policies necessary for their future preservation.