Ecosystem services approach for sustainable governance in a brackish water lagoon used for aquaculture

Human impacts on deltas often involve reclamation of coastal wetlands, causing a dramatic loss of ecological functions. We propose an Ecosystem Services (ES) approach to promote coordinated governance of aquaculture and environmental conservation in a brackish lagoon of the Po River delta (Italy). Spatiotemporal changes of aquatic vegetated habitats and clam production were evaluated, and experimentally related to ESs: climate regulation, habitat provision for birdlife, and potential for birdwatching. Almost all emergent vegetation was lost during past decades, while aquaculture production increased rapidly. Vegetated habitats sequestered significant amounts of carbon and supported more diverse bird communities than non-vegetated wetlands, including protected species of interest for birdwatching. We demonstrated that sectoral management was ineffective in maintaining ESs, promoting the exploitation of few provisioning services while decreasing many others. We propose an innovative, integrated management that focuses on restoring aquatic vegetation to offset anthropic impacts for the future sustainable governance of deltas.