Need for Mechanisms to Monitor Ocean Circulation‐Driven Seagrass Population Expansions

Seagrass beds are increasingly degraded; however, their protection and restoration are still confined to localized marine areas, making it difficult to establish connectivity between differently protected and restored areas. One limiting factor is the lack of understanding of the processes and mechanisms contributing to seagrass population expansion at the ocean area scale, which is the main driver of seagrass dispersal via oceanic circulation. Coastal China. Taxon: Eelgrass (<i>Zostera marina</i>)Using eelgrass as a model species, we propose a strategy to resequence seagrass samples from different geographical populations, analyze the genetic structure of seagrasses by combining genomics and population evolution, construct and screen an optimal model of seagrass colonization history, calibrate the timing of colonization events, and thereby deduce the evolutionary history of seagrass populations. We constructed a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model based on the FVCOM numerical model to clarify the seasonal changes in the surface circulation patterns of seagrasses in their natural distribution areas and to precisely locate the colonization pathways of seagrass populations by combining the history of population differentiation. This study elucidated the main proliferation pathways of the target seagrass populations and their physical driving mechanisms and provides a theoretical basis for the study of seagrass population evolution and their protection and restoration.