engleski

Effect of sedimentation on growth and distribution of seagrasses in the western part of Novigrad sea, Croatia

Seagrass meadows are extremely important as primary producers and as a habitat. They stabilize the substrate and protect the coastline from the erosion. They have enormous potential to trap carbon from the atmosphere so they act as a carbon sink. Seagrass loss is present worldwide due to anthropogenic activities and also climate change. Sediment burial of seagrass is one of the reasons for global seagrass decline. This research used videography method to document changes in sediment accumulation, seagrass density and ground coverage in western part of Novigrad Sea in time period from 2009 to 2011. Changes found in sediment accumulation are partially responsible for changes found in seagrass ground coverage. Moreover, this research confirmed the success of the videography method fir seagrass monitoring. Analysis of seagrass samples found vertical rhizome in Zostera marina and Zostera noltei which is a unique report for Z. marina and second report in the world for Z. noltei. Vertical rhizome is probably induced by sediment burial in the studied area caused by strong E-NE winds and this morphological feature can be interpreted as a local adaptation for burial tolerance of this seagrass population. Seagrass samples collected in the area with higher sediment accumulation rate showed higher belowground biomass which indicates the development of large anchoring system to better cope with hydrodynamic activity. Data gathered through this research can help improve the management of studied Natura 2000 area.

Cymodocea nodosa ; Novigrad Sea ; seagrass ; sedimentation ; vertical growth ; videography ; Zostera marina ; Zostera noltei

nije evidentirano