Seagrass Diversity Research Articles

Seagrass research in the eastern Africa region: emphasis on diversity, ecology and ecophysiology

This paper presents a brief review of seagrass research in the eastern African region, including Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, eastern South Africa, Seychelles, Comoros, Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius. Only about 60 references have been published from this region since the 1930’s, covering mainly seagrass diversity and ecology, and only about 30 of these have been published during the last 10 years in international journals. These covered mainly ecology, ecophysiology and anatomy/histochemistry. Considering this and the fact that eastern Africa with its 12 species is a region of high diversity of seagrasses, seagrass research in the region appears to be in its infancy. Apart from the need for continued survey and mapping activities, future research has to focus on the significance of seagrass beds in the region, their role in the coastal ecosystem and how they are affected by various anthropogenic changes.

Seagrass in Australia. A Strategic Review and Development of a Research and Development Plan

Australia possesses the highest diversity of seagrasses and the most extensive seagrass meadows world-wide. Unfortunately, Australia also has claim to some of the most significant declines of this habitat over the last 50 years. Seagrass in Australia reflects the shift from viewing seagrass species or even habitats as separate unconnected entities. Instead, it views them as components of larger ecosystems which incorporates the author's aim to develop a comprehensive, ecosystem based management plan.

Weight-Density Relationships between and Within Bird Communities: Implications of Niche Space and Vegetation Structure

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotes and CommentsWeight-Density Relationships between and Within Bird Communities: Implications of Niche Space and Vegetation StructureJose Luis Telleria and Luis M. CarrascalJose Luis Telleria Search for more articles by this author and Luis M. Carrascal Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 143, Number 6Jun., 1994 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/285649 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 15Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1994 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Friedrich Wolfgang Keppeler, Danielle Ajala Cruz, Guilherme Dalponti, Roger Paulo Mormul The role of deterministic factors and stochasticity on the trophic interactions between birds and fish in temporary floodplain ponds, Hydrobiologia 773, no.11 (Mar 2016): 225–240.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-016-2705-yGemma E. White, Grant C. Hose, Culum Brown Influence of rock-pool characteristics on the distribution and abundance of inter-tidal fishes, Marine Ecology 36, no.44 (Nov 2014): 1332–1344.https://doi.org/10.1111/maec.12232Adam Bergner, Mustafa Avcı, Hasan Eryiğit, Nicklas Jansson, Mats Niklasson, Lars Westerberg, Per Milberg Influences of forest type and habitat structure on bird assemblages of oak (Quercus spp.) and pine (Pinus spp.) stands in southwestern Turkey, Forest Ecology and Management 336 (Jan 2015): 137–147.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.10.025Luis M. Carrascal, Ismael Galván, Juan S. Sánchez-Oliver, José M. Rey Benayas Regional distribution patterns predict bird occurrence in Mediterranean cropland afforestations, Ecological Research 29, no.22 (Dec 2013): 203–211.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11284-013-1114-1Jan Hanspach, Joern Fischer, Jenny Stott, Karen Stagoll Conservation management of eastern Australian farmland birds in relation to landscape gradients, Journal of Applied Ecology 48, no.33 (Jan 2011): 523–531.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01948.xCOLLEEN L. SEYMOUR, W. R. J. DEAN The influence of changes in habitat structure on the species composition of bird assemblages in the southern Kalahari, Austral Ecology 35, no.55 (Nov 2009): 581–592.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-9993.2009.02069.xMasakazu Hori, Takao Suzuki, Yaowaluk Monthum, Tippamas Srisombat, Yoshiyuki Tanaka, Masahiro Nakaoka, Hiroshi Mukai High seagrass diversity and canopy-height increase associated fish diversity and abundance, Marine Biology 156, no.77 (Mar 2009): 1447–1458.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-009-1184-3Joern Fischer, David B. Lindenmayer, Rebecca Montague-Drake The role of landscape texture in conservation biogeography: a case study on birds in south-eastern Australia, Diversity and Distributions 14, no.11 (Sep 2007): 38–46.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2007.00411.xB. Gratwicke, M. R. Speight The relationship between fish species richness, abundance and habitat complexity in a range of shallow tropical marine habitats, Journal of Fish Biology 66, no.33 (Mar 2005): 650–667.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-1112.2005.00629.xPer Arneberg, Johan Andersen The energetic equivalence rule rejected because of a potentially common sampling error: evidence from carabid beetles, Oikos 101, no.22 (Apr 2003): 367–375.https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2003.11527.x Sabrina E. Russo , Scott K. Robinson , and John Terborgh Size‐Abundance Relationships in an Amazonian Bird Community: Implications for the Energetic Equivalence Rule. S. E. Russo et al., The American Naturalist 161, no.22 (Jul 2015): 267–283.https://doi.org/10.1086/345938Tim M. Blackburn, Adriana Ruggiero Latitude, elevation and body mass variation in Andean passerine birds, Global Ecology and Biogeography 10, no.33 (Dec 2001): 245–259.https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1466-822X.2001.00237.xVicente Polo, Luis M. Carrascal Shaping the body mass distribution of Passeriformes: habitat use and body mass are evolutionarily and ecologically related, Journal of Animal Ecology 68, no.22 (Dec 2001): 324–337.https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00282.x Per Arneberg , Arne Skorping , and Andrew F. Read Parasite Abundance, Body Size, Life Histories, and the Energetic Equivalence Rule Arneberg, Skorping, Read, The American Naturalist 151, no.66 (Jul 2015): 497–513.https://doi.org/10.1086/286136Trevor Price Correlated evolution and independent contrasts, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 352, no.13521352 (Apr 1997): 519–529.https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1997.0036

Biogeography of the tropical seagrasses in the western Pacific

Seagrass species and their distributions were recorded from 18 localities in the tropical and subtropical Pacific. These field observations were collated with a review of the recent literature, enabling the present distribution patterns of seagrass species in the western Pacific to be described and the origin of those species to be discussed in relation to the major oceanic currents of the region. The major tropical seagrasses of the western Pacific are Thalassia hemprichii, Enhalus acoroides, Cymodocea rotundata, C. serrulata, Halodule uninervis, Syringodium isoetifolium and Thalassodendron ciliatum, with T. hemprichii and E. acoroides being the two most widely distributed species. Species are found in coastal waters along the Equatorial Countercurrent and the Kuroshio and East Australian Currents. The highest number of seagrass species occurs in the coastal waters of Malesia enclosed by Indonesia, Borneo, Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait (northern Australia). This area is considered to be the source of all of the seagrass species of the western Pacific, i.e. the centre of their origin. A relationship between the distance from this centre of origin along the above three major ocean currents and the diversity of seagrass species was found: the further from the origin, the poorer the seagrass diversity. These observations support the centre-of-origin theory that was first proposed by den Hartog to describe the processes responsible for the present distribution patterns of seagrasses in the western Pacific.

Pattern and process in southern Western Australian seagrasses

Posidonia and other seagrass genera cover vast areas along the coast of temperate Western Australia, where it seems that disturbance and recolonisation are the dynamic forces which govern the pattern of seagrass beds. Some species of Posidonia may take 60–100 years to cover cleared substratum while species of other genera may come and go within a year. Three case studies of spatially widely separated seagrass beds are given. They illustrate that depth, weather and location make great differences to the extent and diversity of seagrasses. Comments on reproductive ability and observations on seedling growth and vegetative propagation are given with emphasis on the “ Posidonia ostenfeldii” complex.