The new study, launched at the International Seascape Symposium II at ZSL (Zoological Society of London), and published to align with UN Ocean Decade Conference represents two years of work by an international team led by the University of Portsmouth, with support from ZSL and University of Edinburgh.

It delivers the most comprehensive report to date of how coastal habitats in temperate regions function not in isolation, but as interconnected systems - a concept known as ecological connectivity.

“Coastal habitats like oyster reefs, saltmarshes, kelp forests and seagrass meadows are often treated as separate entities in policy and restoration, but in reality, they are tightly bound together by the flows of water, life, and energy,” said lead author Professor Joanne Preston, Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. “To meet our global climate and biodiversity targets, we need to restore the entire seascape.”