Qua nhiều thế kỷ, đất khai hoang, phát triển ven biển, đánh bắt quá mức và ô nhiễm gần như loại bỏ các vùng đất ngập nước châu Âu, đồng cỏ cỏ biển, động vật có vỏ giường, các rạn san hô hữu cơ và sản xuất và đa dạng môi trường sống ven biển khác. Người ta ước tính rằng mỗi ngày giữa năm 1960 và 1995, một cây số bờ biển châu Âu đã được phát triển. Hầu hết các quốc gia đã ước tính thiệt hại của các vùng đất ngập nước ven biển và thảm cỏ. | LOSS STATUS AND TRENDS FOR COASTAL MARINE HABITATS OF EUROPE LAURA AIROLDI1 MICHAEL W. BECK2 1Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica Sperimentale and Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca per le Scienze Ambientali in Ravenna University of Bologna Via S. Alberto 163 48100 Ravenna Italy E-mail 2The Nature Conservancy and Institute of Marine Sciences 100 Shaffer Road-LML University of California Santa Cruz California 95060 . Abstract Over the centuries land reclamation coastal development overfishing and pollution have nearly eliminated European wetlands seagrass meadows shellfish beds biogenic reefs and other productive and diverse coastal habitats. It is estimated that every day between 1960 and 1995 a kilometre of European coastline was developed. Most countries have estimated losses of coastal wetlands and seagrasses exceeding 50 of the original area with peaks above 80 for many regions. Conspicuous declines sometimes to virtual local disappearance of kelps and other complex macroalgae have been observed in several countries. A few dominant threats have led to these losses over time. The greatest impacts to wetlands have consistently been land claim and coastal development. The greatest impacts to seagrasses and macroalgae are presently associated with degraded water quality while in the past there have been more effects from destructive fishing and diseases. Coastal development remains an important threat to seagrasses. For biogenic habitats such as oyster reefs and maerls some of the greatest impacts have been from destructive fishing and overexploitation with additional impacts of disease particularly to native oysters. Coastal development and defence have had the greatest known impacts on soft-sediment habitats with a high likelihood that trawling has affected vast areas. The concept of shifting baselines which has been applied mostly to the inadequate historical perspective of fishery losses is extremely relevant for habitat loss .
