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[7] [8] Ten seagrass species are at elevated risk of extinction (14% of all seagrass species) with three species qualifying as endangered. Seagrass loss and degradation of seagrass biodiversity will have serious repercussions for marine biodiversity and the human population that depends upon the resources and ecosystem services that seagrasses ...
A seagrass meadow or seagrass bed is an underwater ecosystem formed by seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine (saltwater) plants found in shallow coastal waters and in the brackish waters of estuaries . Seagrasses are flowering plants with stems and long green, grass-like leaves.
The ecosystem services provided by intact reefs, seagrasses, and mangroves are both highly valuable and mutually enhance each other. Coastal protection (storm/wave attenuation) maintains the structure of adjacent ecosystems, and associated ecosystem services, in an offshore-to-onshore direction.
Few species were originally considered to feed directly on seagrass leaves (partly because of their low nutritional content), but scientific reviews and improved working methods have shown that seagrass herbivory is a highly important link in the food chain, with hundreds of species feeding on seagrasses worldwide, including green turtles ...
English: Interdependencies of coral reef, seagrass and mangrove ecosystems along the tropical seascape. Based on : Moberg F and Folke C (1999) "Ecological goods and services of coral reef ecosystems".
Zostera marina is a flowering vascular plant species as one of many kinds of seagrass, with this species known primarily by the English name of eelgrass with seawrack much less used, and refers to the plant after breaking loose from the submerged wetland soil, and drifting free with ocean current and waves to a coast seashore.
In terms of biodiversity, a brackish marsh serves a unique ecological niche. [8] Its vegetation is a byproduct of its salinity levels. High salinity serves as an evolutionary barrier for most plants, creating a less diverse number of plant species as an ecosystem moves from fresh to saltwater.
With regard to seascapes defined by sampling units, a 1 m 2 quadrant can be a valid seascape sample unit (SSU), just as can a 1 km 2 analytical window in a geographical information system. The wide diversity of possible focal scales in marine ecology means that the term seascape cannot be used as an indication of scale, or a level of organization.