Seagrass meadows

Seagrass meadows Southern Australia: marine, endangered-critically endangered Biomedical Science, Period 6

Sienna Alonso

“The cool temperate waters of South Australia host some of the most unique marine life on our big blue planet including some of Australia’s most iconic species such as the southern right whale, bottlenose dolphin, weedy sea dragon.”

Background Information 1. An ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

2. Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play.

3. Being 20,000 km long, its the biggest seagrass meadow in the world. Some biotic factors in the seagrass meadows are the seagrass, the animals that live in it. And an abiotic factor is the saltwater. It is located in western australia.

4. Seagrasses are the foundation of complex ecosystems, primarily from the ability to colonise inshore coastal sand with its roots and matted rhizomes. These meadows are able to provide habitat to other species, especially epiphytic relationships, and are a food source for other organisms. Western rock lobsters are found as juveniles amongst seagrass.

Expedition Map

Seagrass

Microscopic animals

Microscopic animals

Microscopic animals

Microscopic animals

Smaller Fish

Smaller fish

Food Web

Larger fish

Food Chain

Feeding Relationships

Symbiotic Relationships The Seagrass are not predators but fish do eat them. They consume the sunlight and then they’ll produce algae. Algae lives on the seagrass and coral.

Seagrass meadows Seagrasses are among the world’s most threatened ecosystems- around 29 per cent of all historic seagrass meadows have been destroyed, mostly due to dredging and water quality degradation.

Seagrass meadows These endangered ecosystems are key sites for carbon storage. Even though, they occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, They are responsible for more than 10 percent of all blue carbon stores, according to University of Western Australia researchers.

Seagrass Meadows People can stop dumping garbage in the ocean to help it stay out of the seagrass meadows.

Seagrass Meadows I can pick up the trash on the ocean floor and i can put things in the recycling bin.

References

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Waters, Hannah. “Seagrass and Seagrass Beds.” Ocean Portal , Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, 10 Jan. 2018, ocean.si.edu/seagrass-and-seagrass-beds.

“Marine Biodiversity Wiki.” Over Exploitation - Marine Biodiversity Wiki, www.marbef.org/wiki/seagrass_meadows.

“Seagrass Meadows.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/subjects/oceans/seagrass-meadows.htm.

“Seagrass Meadow.” Egyptian Journal of Medical Human Genetics, Elsevier, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-scie nces/seagrass-meadow.

Sanctuary, Florida Keys National Marine. “Seagrass Are Flowering Plants That Grow Entirely Underwater.” About Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 24 Feb. 2015, floridakeys.noaa.gov/plants/seagrass.html