Saturday, January 17, 2015

Seagrass Savanna

Check out this video detailing the work of graduate student Savanna Barry, who studies seagrass along Florida's Gulf coast:




Seagrasses are an important part of our coastal systems and perform many important and valuable ecosystem functions, such as providing food and habitat for a number of marine fish and invertebrate species; it's estimated that somewhere near 70% of Florida's fishery species spend at least part of their life cycle in seagrass communities. Seagrasses also help maintain water clarity, and their roots and rhizomes stabilize coastal seafloors. Clearly seagrasses are important coastal habitats, and it is therefore unsurprising that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) estimates that each acre of Florida seagrass has an economic value of approximately $20,500/year!

For more on Florida's seagrasses visit:
http://www.sms.si.edu/IRLspec/Seagrass_Habitat.htm
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/habitats/seagrass/
http://myfwc.com/research/habitat/seagrasses/information/importance/

7 comments:

  1. thanks for sharing this video for all of us to know how the seagrass is very important on our ecosystem

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  2. I learned a lot from the video about seagrass, this is worth spreading

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  3. you're such an inspiration Ms. Barry, I love watching the video

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  4. Wow! You have definitely let me know some things that I never knew or considered about seagrass.

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