Since 1998, approximately 148,134,806 m2 (14,813.5 Ha) of seagrass habitat has been mapped across the United Kingdom coastline. This was calculated from a total of 1,872 polygons from 67 datasets of mapped seagrass meadows using various methodologies of surveying (diving, aerial photography, hydrographic surveys, walking surveys, drone mapping, in situ assessments) and various resolutions. This data was collated from a wide range of databases outlined in the paper by Green et al. (2021; doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.629962). The datasets were subsequently projected into QGIS, merged, and dissolved into one layer as one single shapefile. The resulting dataset is a composite shapefile depicting mapped seagrass distribution across the United Kingdom, saved as a QGIS polygon shapefile, using the Assigned Coordinate Reference System (CRS) EPSG:4326 – WGS 84.

The shapefile contains a composite, collated seagrass polygon layer from multiple datasets and methodologies of surveying seagrass distribution, from the United Kingdom since 1998. The file can be projected into (Q)GIS using the Assigned Coordinate Reference System (CRS) EPSG:4326 - WGS 84. All four files need to be downloaded and saved for the shapefile to open correctly within your (Q)GIS.Projection: Latitude, Longitude (Extent: 49.916495539, -7.398963225 : 60.235218890, 1.238957057)Date: EPSG:4326 – WGS 84This project has been funded with the support of the Kickstart Scheme (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/kickstart-scheme, award number 55YT-ZLKE) and the CGI x Project Seagrass partnership (https://www.cgi.com/uk/en-gb/news/climate/cgi-announces-strategic-partnership-project-seagrass-reduce-co2, award number CGI-PS21)