- Seagrass are angiosperms. (They flower)
- Their pollen can travel above water, on the surface of the water, or under water.
- Seagrass live in oceans around the world
- Their ancestors are land plants.
- Seagrasses are not a taxonomically unified group. They moved to the ocean in three separate lineages.
- They have about 60 species
- Seagrasses are not actually grass.
- They tend to look kind of like grass due to their long ribbon-like leaves, though many do not resemble grass at all. Some look like ferns.
- Seagrass is not seaweed. Seaweed is algae.
- Seagrass can tolerate a range of salinity from 4 to 65 parts per thousand.
- They need between 4.4 and 29% of surface light to grow. Too much UV radiation can damage them.
- They pump oxygen in the sediment around their roots.
- Seagrass require inorganic carbon, often using bicarbonate.
- Seagrass cannot grow in sediments of high organic content.
- They are found mainly in estuaries, bays, and coastal waters. They can live from mid-intertidal regions to 50-60 meters down. (past that fallen shark cage with the movie stars heh heh)
- Seagrasses make up areas from small patches to large meadows. Up to 12 species have been found living together.
- Seagrasses form important habitats for other organisms. They provide food, and shelter, and they are nurseries to many. Many fish, prawns and shellfish important to humans depend or benefit from seagrass.
- Charismatic animals like Dugong and green sea turtles mainly feed on seagrass.
- Seagrass serve as nutrient sinks and can buffer against eutrophication.
- Seagrass meadows are rated the 3rd most valuable ecosystem globally! What the what! Estuaries and wetlands are the only ones rated higher.
- Sea grass monitoring is an indicator of marine ecosystem health.
Both are from the Seagrass-watch organization which monitors seagrass populations globally.
