SEAGRASS

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SEAGRASS

• How are seagrass and seagrass beds important?

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WHAT IS A SEAGRASS?

• Marine plant
• Angiosperm true flowering plant
• Vascular tissues (phloem xylem)
• Benthic (bottom dweller)
• Found in shallow coastal water where there is
  lots of sunlight
• Flowers are pollinated underwater except for one
  species

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STRUCTURE OF SEAGRASS

• Rhizomes rootlike, buried in sand that take up
  nutrients and anchor plant to substrate
• Nodes
• Internodes
• Shoots
• Leafs need light for photosynthesis
• Flowers

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PARTS OF A SEAGRASS PLANT
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SEAGRASS CORAL REEFS

• Provide habitat, shelter, and nursery for wide
  variety of animals and plants
• Improve water quality by removing nutrients from
  the water
• Roots stabilize and hold bottom sediment
• Leaves slow down currents and allows sediment to
  settle
• Food for marine organisms (primary producers)
• Produce and trap ditritus (dead organism)

6
HUMAN USES OF SEAGRASS

• House insulation made of dried seagrass
• Soundproof radio studios
• Roofing thatch
• Package stuffing
• Stock feed
• Fertilizers for land plants

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HARMS TO SEAGRASSES

• Dredging
• Removes seagrass
• Creates muddied water that reduces amount of
  sunlight
• Silt can smother and suffocate seagrass beds and
  other organisms in the area
• Nutrients from sewage, fertilizer runoffs from
  farm areas, soil eroding from land
• Boating

8
WHAT CAN WE DO TO PROTECT SEAGRASS?

• Be careful of how we treat the land
• Land use management
• Practice environmentally friendly farming
  techniques and method
• Control deforestation
• Volunteer in seagrass monitoring program
• Educate or remind boaters of the following
• Keep out of seagrass areas during low tides
• If you must pass through seagrass areas when
  boating, go slow
• Anchor away from seagrass beds

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• Reduce amount of pollution entering bays and
  estuaries by doing the following
• Be careful of what you dump in the drain
• Establish buffer zones
• Reduce amount of pesticide and fertilizers used
  on lawns and farms
• Reduce storm water runoffs into bays
• Build environmentally friendly septic tanks near
  coastal waters