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Seagrass ecosystems at a 'global crisis'
December 01, 2006An international team of scientists is calling for a targeted global conservation effort to preserve seagrasses and their ecological services for the world's coastal ecosystems, according to an article published in the December issue of Bioscience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS).
The article "A Global Crisis for Seagrass Ecosystems" cites the critical role seagrasses play in coastal systems and how costal development, population growth and the resulting increase of nutrient and sediment pollution have contributed to large-scale losses worldwide.
"Seagrasses are the coal mine canaries of coastal ecosystems," said co-author Dr. William Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "The fate of seagrasses can provide resource managers advance signs of deteriorating ecological conditions caused by poor water quality and pollution."
Among its findings, the study analyzed an apparent disconnect between the scientific community's concerns over seagrass habitat and its coverage in the popular media. While recent studies rank seagrass as one of the most valuable habitat in coastal systems, media coverage of other habitats - including salt marshes, mangroves and coral reefs - receive 3 to 100-fold more media attention than seagrass systems.
"Translating scientific understanding of the value of seagrass ecosystems into public awareness, and thus effective seagrass management and restoration, has not been as effective as for other coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes, mangroves, or coral reefs," said co-author Dr. Robert Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "Elevating public awareness about this impending crisis is critical to averting it."
"This report is a call to the world's coastal managers that we need to do more to protect seagrass habitat," said co-author Dr. Tim Carruthers of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Seagrasses are just one of the many keys to maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems and their biodiversity."
Seagrasses - a unique group of flowering plants that have adapted to exist fully submersed in the sea - profoundly influence the physical, chemical and biological environments of coastal waters. They provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help mitigate the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution.
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Among its findings, the study analyzed an apparent disconnect between the scientific community's concerns over seagrass habitat and its coverage in the popular media. While recent studies rank seagrass as one of the most valuable habitat in coastal systems, media coverage of other habitats - including salt marshes, mangroves and coral reefs - receive 3 to 100-fold more media attention than seagrass systems.
"Translating scientific understanding of the value of seagrass ecosystems into public awareness, and thus effective seagrass management and restoration, has not been as effective as for other coastal ecosystems, such as salt marshes, mangroves, or coral reefs," said co-author Dr. Robert Orth of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "Elevating public awareness about this impending crisis is critical to averting it."
"This report is a call to the world's coastal managers that we need to do more to protect seagrass habitat," said co-author Dr. Tim Carruthers of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Seagrasses are just one of the many keys to maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems and their biodiversity."
Seagrasses - a unique group of flowering plants that have adapted to exist fully submersed in the sea - profoundly influence the physical, chemical and biological environments of coastal waters. They provide critical habitat for aquatic life, alter water flow and can help mitigate the impact of nutrient and sediment pollution.
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Seagrass Current Events and Seagrass News RSSScientists are first to 'unlock' the mystery of creating cultured pearls from the queen conch
For more than 25 years, all attempts at culturing pearls from the queen conch (Strombus gigas) have been unsuccessful-until now.
Nitrogen retained through loss
The nitrogen cycle plays a major role in seagrass fields. Dutch researcher Arie Vonk studied the nitrogen dynamics of seagrasses in Indonesia. He discovered that the interaction between seagrasses, animals and microorganisms results in an efficient nitrogen cycle in tropical seagrass fields. Consequently the nitrogen lost from seagrasses is still retained.
New study shows extent of harmful human influences on global ecosystems
More than 40 percent of the world's oceans are heavily impacted by human activities, including overfishing and pollution, according to a new study that will appear in tomorrow's peer-reviewed journal Science.
World's coral reef left vulnerable by paper parks
Although 18.7% of the world's coral reefs are within "Marine Protected Areas" (MPAs) less that 2% are within MPAs with sound management, scientists report in the June 23 edition of Science Magazine.
Decline of world's estuaries and coastal seas
Human activity over the centuries has depleted 90% of marine species, eliminated 65% of seagrass and wetland habitat, degraded water quality 10-1,000 fold, and accelerated species invasions in 12 major estuaries and coastal seas around the world.
The Bay Is His Oyster: Ray Grizzle Is Restoring Oyster Reefs To NH's Great Bay
In the past decade, the oyster population in New Hampshire's Great Bay estuary has plummeted by 90 percent, due to the 1995 arrival of the oyster disease MSX.
Seagrass Is In Decline Worldwide, Says UNH Researcher
Around the world, seagrass beds - shallow-water ecosystems that are important habitats, food sources, and sediment stabilizers - are in decline.
UF scientists trace origin of shark's electric sense
Sharks are known for their almost uncanny ability to detect electrical signals while hunting and navigating.
Smithsonian guide to the biodiverse marine environment of Panama's Bocas del Toro
Coral reefs, coastal rainforest, land-grab, industrial bananas and organic cacao, mangroves, tourist boom, eclectic cultural mix: A Caribbean Journal of Science special issue presents the first scientific overview of the marine environment in Bocas del Toro Province near Panama's border with Costa Rica.
Grazer diversity counteracts plant diversity effects on ecosystem functioning in seagrass beds
Several influential experiments have shown that high plant diversity enhances ecosystem productivity, animal diversity, and invasion resistance. Yet theory predicts that plant and herbivore diversity, which often co vary in nature, should have countervailing effects on ecosystem properties. In the July issue of Ecology Letters, Duffy, Canuel, and Richardson provide experimental support for this prediction. In a seagrass system, increasing grazer diversity reduced both algal biomass and total community diversity, and facilitated dominance of a grazing-resistant invertebrate. In parallel with previous plant results, however, grazer diversity enhanced grazer biomass production, an important det
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Seagrasses: Biology, Ecology and Conservation by Anthony W.D. Larkum (Editor), Robert J. Orth (Editor), Carlos M. Duarte (Editor) Seagrasses are unique plants; the only group of flowering plants to recolonise the sea. They occur on every continental margin, except Antarctica, and form ecosystems which have important roles in fisheries, fish nursery grounds, prawn fisheries, habitat diversity and sediment stabilisation. Over the last two decades there has been an explosion of research and information on all aspects of seagrass biology. However the compilation of all this work into one book has not been attempted previously. In this book experts in 26 areas of seagrass biology present their work in chapters which are state-of–the-art and designed to be useful to students and researchers alike. The book not only focuses on what has been discovered but what exciting areas are left to discover. The book is divided... |
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World Atlas of Seagrasses (Copub: Unep-Wcmc) by Edmund P. Green (Editor), Frederick T. Short (Editor) Seagrasses, a group of about sixty species of underwater marine flowering plants, grow in the shallow marine and estuary environments of all the world's continents except Antarctica. The primary food of animals such as manatees, dugongs, green sea turtles, and critical habitat for thousands of other animal and plant species, seagrasses are also considered one of the most important shallow-marine ecosystems for humans since they play an important role in fishery production. Though they are highly valuable ecologically and economically, many seagrass habitats around the world have been completely destroyed or are now in rapid decline. The World Atlas of Seagrasses is the first authoritative and comprehensive global synthesis of the distribution and status of this critical marine... |
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