Seagrass
Seagrasses are flowering plants adapted to live submerged in marine waters. They grow in shallow coastal sediments and often form underwater meadows.
Seagrass pollination: The transfer of pollen among submerged or surface-flowering seagrass plants, often through water currents. Their flowers release pollen into water, enabling reproduction without insects.
Blue carbon: Carbon captured and stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, including seagrass meadows, mangroves, and salt marshes. Seagrass sediments can retain carbon for long periods, making meadows a blue-carbon ecosystem.
Ecosystem engineer: An organism that changes the physical environment and thereby alters habitat availability for other organisms. Seagrass modifies seabed conditions and creates habitat rather than merely occupying it.
Seaweed: Macroscopic marine algae that lack the true roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of land plants. Seaweeds may form underwater beds, but they are algae rather than flowering plants.
Rhizome: A horizontal plant stem that grows along or beneath the ground and can produce roots and shoots. Seagrass rhizomes spread through sediment, anchoring plants and extending meadows.
Seagrass restoration: The repair of degraded seagrass habitat through measures such as transplanting shoots or sowing seeds. Restoration projects use planting and water-quality improvements to rebuild lost meadows.
Dugong: A large marine mammal that feeds primarily on seagrasses in tropical coastal waters. Dugongs depend on seagrass for food and can leave distinctive grazing trails.
Mangrove: A salt-tolerant tree or shrub that grows in tropical and subtropical coastal intertidal zones. Mangroves are rooted coastal plants, but grow above water in intertidal forests.
Clonal colony: A group of genetically identical plants produced by vegetative growth from a common individual. Many meadows expand as connected shoots produced by a small number of plants.
Fisheries habitat: The places and environmental conditions that support fish populations and their life stages. Seagrass leaves shelter juvenile fish and provide feeding grounds for many species.