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A feedback between seagrass presence, suspended sediment and benthic light can induce bistability between two ecosystem states: one where the presence of seagrass reduces suspended sediment concentrations to increase benthic light availability thereby favoring growth, and another where seagrass absence increases turbidity thereby reducing growth. This literature review identifies (1) how the environmental and seagrass meadow characteristics influence the strength and direction (stabilizing or destabilizing) of the seagrass‐sediment‐light feedback, and (2) how this feedback has been incorporated in ecosystem models proposed to support environmental decision making. Large, dense seagrass meadows in shallow subtidal, non‐eutrophic systems, growing in sediments of mixed grain size and subject to higher velocity flows, have the greatest potential to generate bistability via the seagrass‐sediment …