Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The second most abundant and important
Caribbean seagrass is
manatee grass
(
carbon by seagrass reveal that these producer
communities may sequester carbon in soils
composed of both autochthonous and allochtho-
nous organic carbon. These soils are largely
anaerobic, and as a result, the carbon in the soils
can be preserved for millennia (Mateo et al.
1997
,
2006
; Orem et al.
1999
). Fourqurean et al.
(
2012
) compiled published and unpublished data
on the organic carbon content of seagrass living
biomass and organic carbon content and dry bulk
density (DBD) of
Syringo-
dium liforme
). Manatee grass grows in pure
sands as well as mixed with turtle grass. It is
usually found at depths of 10 m (33 ft) or less.
Manatee grass tolerates lower salinities than
other species and its reproduction is controlled
by temperature.
Species of the genus
, commonly
known as
surf grasses
, are unusual because they
grow in intertidal areas where there is high surf.
The various species often grow together in tight
clusters with their rhizomes tightly packed and
strongly attached to rocks or other solid surfaces.
The roots have branching root hairs that form a
dense mat that anchors the plants on the rocks
and helps prevent
Phyllospadix
soils underlying seagrass
meadows
rst-order
estimates of the amount of organic carbon stored
in these ecosystems. The database on organic
carbon in seagrass meadows contained 3,640
observations from 946 distinct sampling loca-
tions across the world (Supplementary Informa-
tion). The distribution of the data was
geographically biased owing to an imbalance in
research effort across regions (Orth et al.
2006
),
with most of the data from North America,
Western Europe and Australia. Data were nota-
bly scarce from South America and Africa. Fur-
thermore, given the spatial extent of seagrasses in
the tropical
to deliver conservative,
Phyllospadix
from being dis-
lodged by the surf.
In India, six species of seagrass are reported
from the Gulf of Kutch.
Thalassia hemprichii
occurs widely on the inward side of almost all the
reef
ats of the Gulf. The common seagrass
found growing on the muddy substrate are
Halophila ovalis
fl
(Fig.
4.19
),
H. beccarii
and
Z.
marina
.
Seagrass meadows occupy less than 0.2 % of
the area of the world
c, relatively few data
points represented this region (Fig.
4.20
).
According to Fourqurean et al. (
2012
), the
amount of organic carbon stored in living seagrass
biomass globally averaged 2.52
Indo-Paci
s oceans, but are estimated
to bury 27.4 Tg C year
−
1
, roughly 10 % of the
yearly estimated organic carbon in the oceans
(Duarte
1999
). Researches on storage potential of
'
0.48 MgC ha
−
1
±
(
±
95 % CI), two-thirds of which was buried in the
Fig. 4.19
Halophila
ovalis
