Marine Anthophytes

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Marine Anthophytes

• Seagrasses

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WhatWhere

• Seagrasses are submerged flowering plants found
  in shallow marine waters in bays, lagoons, and
  along the continental shelf in the Gulf of
  Mexico.
• Seagrasses provide food, habitat, and nursery
  areas for thousands of species.
• Seagrasses perform numerous functions

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Stabilization

• Ocean bottom areas without seagrass are
  vulnerable to intense wave action from currents
  and storms. The extensive root system in
  seagrasses, which extends both vertically and
  horizontally, helps stabilize the sea bottom in a
  manner similar to the way land grasses prevent
  soil erosion. With no seagrasses to diminish the
  force of the currents along the bottom, our Gulf
  coastline, businesses, and homes can be subject
  to greater damage from storms.

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Ecosystem support

• Seagrasses provide food, shelter, and
  essential nursery areas to commercial and
  recreational fishery species and to countless
  invertebrates living in seagrass communities.
  Again, our grouper, redfish, trout and many, many
  other important species rely on healthy seagrass
  beds.

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Food

• While some animals, like the Florida manatee
  and green sea turtle, graze directly on seagrass
  leaves, others use seagrasses indirectly to
  provide nutrients. Detritus from seagrasses feed
  the worms, crabs, and filter feeders that serve
  as the base for our area's rich food chain.

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Nursery areas

• The relative safety of seagrass meadows
  provides an ideal environment for juvenile fish
  and invertebrates to conceal themselves from
  predators. Seagrass leaves are also ideal for the
  attachment of larvae and eggs, including those of
  the sea squirt and mollusk. Much of the Gulfs
  recreationally and commercially important marine
  life can be found in seagrass meadows during at
  least one early life stage.

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Habitat

• While seagrasses are ideal for juvenile and
  small adult fish for escape from larger
  predators, many infaunal organisms (animals
  living in soft sea bottom sediments) also live
  within seagrass meadows. Species such as clams,
  worms, crabs, and echinoderms, like starfishes,
  sea cucumbers, and sea urchins, use the buffering
  capabilities of seagrasses to provide a refuge
  from strong currents. The dense network of roots
  established by seagrasses also helps deter
  predators from digging through the substratum to
  find infaunal prey organisms. Seagrass leaves
  provide a place of anchor for seaweeds and for
  filter-feeding animals like bryozoans, sponges,
  and forams.

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Water Quality

• Seagrasses help trap fine sediments and
  particles that are suspended in the water column,
  which increases water clarity. When a sea floor
  area lacks seagrass communities, the sediments
  are more frequently stirred by wind and waves,
  decreasing water clarity, affecting marine animal
  behavior, and generally decreasing the
  recreational quality of coastal areas. Seagrasses
  also work to filter nutrients that come from
  land-based industrial discharge and stormwater
  runoff before these nutrients are washed out to
  sea and to other sensitive habitats such as coral
  reefs.

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Economics

• Although seagrass is not a commodity that is
  directly cultivated along the Gulf Coast, its
  economic value can be measured through other
  industries, such as commercial and recreational
  fisheries and nature and wildlife tourism, which
  rely on this habitat to survive. Since most of
  the fishery species (approximately 70) spend at
  least part of their life cycle within seagrass
  communities, seagrasses are vital to the survival
  of these fishing industries.

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Some facts

• Seagrasses grow in lush beds throughout the
  bay wherever conditions are favorable and there
  is enough bottom sediment for the seagrasses to
  take root. Like the grasses of your lawn at home,
  seagrasses are flowering plants. They have roots,
  stems, and flowers. They produce oxygen. And
  without exceptionally clear water that allows the
  sunlight to reach them, seagrasses will die off
  just as your lawn at home would if it were
  deprived of sunlight.

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Micro-world in the seagrass bed

• Seagrass beds are typical for shallow
  estuarine and coastal zones where the light can
  penetrate to the sea floor. Depending on size and
  density, the sea grass beds interact more or less
  intensively with the boundary layer currents. The
  reduction of water flow within the canopy permits
  the settlement of suspended materials that
  provide nutrients to the seagrasses. Likewise,
  the limited water exchange between the seagrass
  bed and the overlying water generates a
  microclimate that has positive effects on the
  growth of the sea grasses.

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Kinds

• Turtle-grass, Thalassia testudinum, the most
  common seagrass, has wide leaf blades and a deep
  root structure, and forms most of the large, lush
  seagrass meadows.

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• Shooting photos of seahorses in the turtle grass

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another

• Manatee grass, Syringodium filiforme, is a
  shallow subtidal species that thrives at a depth
  of approximately 2 -3 feet, but also occurs to
  depth of 60 feet.  It forms monospecific beds or
  can be found in mixed beds, where it intermingles
  with grass, Thalassia testudinum.   Preferred
  substrate is sand or fine mud.
• Manatee grass ranges throughout the tropical
  western Atlantic from eastern Florida through the
  Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Bermuda, and the
  Bahamas.
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EelgrassZostera

• Seagrasses found in sheltered bays and inlets are
  dominated by species of Zosteraceae, commonly
  known as eelgrass.

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Sampling seagrasses
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Not just FloridaIt is Alabamas, too

• Seagrasses support over 70 of Florida's
  fisheries by providing food and critical habitat,
  but since the turn of the century, Florida has
  lost over half of its seagrass beds due to
  development, dredging, pollution and increased
  boating activity. It is our choices that decide
  whether this trend continues or if healthy
  seagrasses serve to nurture our trout, redfish,
  flounder, grouper, numerous types of baitfishes,
  and many, many more important ocean species.

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What can you do to protect the seagrasses?

• Be Aware
• Read the Waters
• Know Your Boating Signs and Markers
• Know Your Depth and Draft
• Be On the Lookout
• Study Your Charts

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• Be Aware If you live near the coast or along a
  river, be careful when applying fertilizers and
  pesticides to your lawn. Use only the amount of
  fertilizer required and consider using a
  slow-release fertilizer. Gutters and storm drains
  transport excess lawn chemicals to the water.
• Read the Waters Wear polarized sunglasses when
  boating to reduce the surface glare to help you
  see shallow areas and seagrass beds. Polarized
  sunglasses can also help you see and avoid
  manatees and underwater hazards.
• Know Your Boating Signs and Markers Operate your
  boat in marked channels to prevent running
  aground and damaging your boat and seagrass beds.
  Know the correct side to stay on when approaching
  channel markers. Learn the shapes and markings of
  signs warning boaters of dangerous shallows and
  areas where boats are prohibited by law.
• Know Your Depth and Draft When in doubt about
  the depth, slow down and idle. If you are leaving
  a muddy trail behind your boat, you are probably
  cutting seagrass. Tilt or stop your engine if
  necessary. If you run aground, pole or walk your
  boat to deeper water. Never try to motor your way
  out. This will cause extensive damage to seagrass
  and may harm your motor. Know the times for your
  low and high tides.
• Be On the Lookout Docks, boathouses, and even
  boats can block sunlight from reaching the
  seagrass below. When building or repairing a
  dock, consider building the dock five feet above
  the water and using grating rather than planks.
  Extend the dock to deeper water so your boat does
  not shade seagrass.
• Study Your Charts Use navigational charts,
  fishing maps, or local boating guides to become
  familiar with waterways. These nautical charts
  alert you to shallow areas so you dont run
  aground and damage seagrass. Know before you go.

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