Aquatic plants are critical components of estuarine ecosystems supporting
biodiversity and a range of ecosystem services such as sediment stabilisation and
denitrification. However, estuarine plants, similar to their freshwater counterparts, are
in decline and under threat. The examination of remains of aquatic plants in sediment
records can document the fate of the plants themselves, along with numerous natural
and anthropogenic changes in estuaries, including those associated with relative sea
level change, pollution and habitat degradation. In comparison with other proxies, the
use of macrofossils in estuaries is in its relative infancy. However, many approaches
to the examination of plant macrofossils can be utilised from the freshwater domain
where a number of advances have been made, particularly in the past decade
