Seagrass Ecology

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Seagrass Ecology

• Estuarine seagrass ecosystems in North Carolina
  and Florida

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Seagrasses

• Angiosperms (flowering plants) that live life
  entirely underwater
• Primary productivity is among the highest
  measured (500 - 4000 g C/m2/year)
• Important feeding and refuge habitat for fishery
  species (shrimp, scallops, fishes)
• Seagrasses act as sediment stablizers help to
  filter water

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Major polyhaline seagrass species
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Major oligohaline aquatic macrophytes
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Seagrass productivity
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Habitat Complexity

• Habitat complexity is high in seagrass/SAV
• Predators are inhibited by complexity because the
  prey have many places to hide
• Densities of many invertebrates (infaunal and
  epifaunal) and small fishes are greater in SAV
  than in nearby unvegetated areas
• Seagrass provides a refuge from predation

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Types of animals in seagrass

• Infauna bury in sediment.
• Polychaete worms, amphipods, clams, benefit from
  root and rhizome mat which protects from
  predators
• deeper-living animals survive better than
  shallow-living (Mercenaria gt Chione)
• Epifauna Live on surface of blades and sediment
• Meiofauna (harpacticoid copepods), macrofauna
  (amphipods. isopods), tube-dwelling sessile
  polychaetes, gastropods, decapods
• Shoot and leaf complexity provides refuge
• Mobile fauna Live in water over canopy
• fishes swim above canopy, dive into it when
  predator