The movement ecology of seagrasses

Abstract

A movement ecology framework is applied to enhance our understanding of the causes, mechanisms and consequences of movement in seagrasses: marine, clonal, flowering plants. Four life-history stages of seagrasses can move: pollen, sexual propagules, vegetative fragments and the spread of individuals through clonal growth. Movement occurs on the water surface, in the water column, on or in the sediment, via animal vectors and through spreading clones. A capacity for long-distance dispersal and demographic connectivity over multiple timeframes is the novel feature of the movement ecology of seagrasses with significant evolutionary and ecological consequences. The space–time movement footprint of different life-history stages varies. For example, the distance moved by reproductive propagules and vegetative expansion via clonal growth is similar, but the timescales range exponentially, from hours to months or centuries to millennia, respectively. Consequently, environmental factors and key traits that interact to influence movement also operate on vastly different spatial and temporal scales. Six key future research areas have been identified.

Bounded and unbounded boundaries – Untangling mechanisms for estuarine-marine ecological connectivity: Scales of m to 10,000 km – A review

“…comm.). For fragments dragged along the bottom, their velocity was assumed to be half that of the water currents, and this may be an over-estimate (McMahon et al, 2014). The location of the settled seeds after one month Figure 4b and c) shows that floating seeds were dispersed tens to > 100 km while the fragments dragging along the bottom were dispersed only a few km.…”

Effects of temperature, salinity and seed age on induction of Zostera japonica germination in North America, USA

“…Recent work has also highlighted the underappreciation of seagrass "movement ecology" including the role of animal vectors, seed dispersal, clones, etc. (Kendrick et al, 2012;McMahon et al, 2014). Likewise, increased genetic variation has been linked with increased population resilience and vigor (Hughes and Stachowicz, 2004;Ehlers et al, 2008;Reynolds et al, 2012).…”

Variability in patterns of macro-epiphytic leaf community of Posidonia oceanica in the Islands of Kuriate: Western coast of Tunisia

“…It provides substratum to a species-rich epiphytic community [12,13], which achieves maximum biomass between the end of spring and the end of summer [1,14]. Monitoring of epiphyte of P. oceanica beds is becoming a useful tool to test the health of coastal environment and several countries have developed programs to study the distribution and the characteristics of seagrass beds and their epiphyte [1,[15][16][17][18]. The effect of different kinds of human-induced disturbances on A RT I C L E I N F O A B S T R AC T seagrasses in Tunisian coast include such phenomena as reduced water clarity (e.g.…”