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Review
. 2025;40(6):115.
doi: 10.1007/s10980-025-02099-9. Epub 2025 Jun 4.

Five ways seascape ecology can help to achieve marine restoration goals

L M Wedding  1 , C E Stuart  1 , L L Govers  2   3 , R J Lilley  2 , A Olds  4 , J Preston  5 , L E Tavasi  1 , S J Pittman  1
Affiliations
Review

Five ways seascape ecology can help to achieve marine restoration goals

L M Wedding et al. Landsc Ecol. 2025.

Abstract

Context: Marine restoration is increasingly recognized as a key activity to regenerate ecosystem integrity, safeguard biodiversity, and enable ocean sustainability. Global policies such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework include area-based targets to improve ecosystem integrity and connectivity. Achieving these targets requires scaling up restoration in ecologically and socially meaningful ways.

Objectives: The objective was to establish a consistent language and framework for seascape restoration practitioners that complements existing marine restoration guidelines and can help to achieve cross-scale restoration targets.

Methods: We proposed that the integration of the 5Cs of seascape ecology-Context, Configuration, Connectivity, Consideration of scale, and Culture- can offer a valuable framework for advancing marine restoration practice and policy. We synthesized existing ecological and social science evidence to demonstrate how the 5Cs framework can be applied to seascape restoration efforts.

Results: We established a consistent language and framework for marine restoration practitioners and recommended four key operational pathways: (1) focusing on the recovery of interconnected habitats across the land-sea interface; (2) integrating the 5Cs from site selection through to monitoring; (3) representing social, historical, cultural, and ecological variables when assessing site suitability; and (4) fostering transdisciplinary collaborations to support integrative, multifaceted projects.

Conclusions: Integrating landscape ecology concepts and methods into coastal restoration will enable the effective scaling up of regenerative actions. Applying the 5Cs can help achieve global restoration targets through more strategic, inclusive, and effective marine restoration across coastal seascapes.

Keywords: Connectivity; Cross-habitat facilitation; Marine restoration; Seascape ecology; Seascape restoration.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestL.M. Wedding is an Editorial Board Member at Landscape Ecology. S.J. Pittman and C.E. Stuart are Guest Editors at Landscape Ecology.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The 5Cs of seascape ecology—Context, Configuration, Connectivity, Consideration of scale, and Culture—can help inform restoration ecology and enhance the design of other nature-based solutions
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Diagram illustrating the integration of the 5Cs of seascape ecology (Context, Configuration, Connectivity, Consideration of scale, and Culture) to enhance strategies for scaling up coastal restoration across interconnected land–sea ecosystems. All five elements are key to consider across a range of spatial scales (X-axis) from habitat patches, seascape, land–sea interface, and at the regional-level. The restoration constraints and opportunities based on all five elements are important to consider when aiming to move across time (Y-axis) from the degraded habitats of the past to ensure seascape restoration best practices are applied to support rebounding habitats while key indicators are identified to monitor future restoration outcomes. This figure includes graphics from the Integration and Application Network (ian.umces.edu/media-library) and Vecteezy (https://www.vecteezy.com/)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Recovering vegetation patches in the Blue Heart Sunshine Coast, eastern Australia, differ in their context, configuration, and connectivity. These seascape attributes affect the recovery of biodiversity, fisheries targets, and ecosystem functioning
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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