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Submerged Aquatic Vegetation | ||||||||||||
Habitat Description Submerged Aquatic Vegetation is defined as any combination of seagrasses, oligohaline grasses, attached macroalgae and drift algae that covers 10 to 100 percent of a substrate. This section only addresses seagrasses. Seagrasses are marine flowering plants adapted to grow and reproduce in the underwater environment. Florida estuaries and nearshore coastal waters contain the nation’s largest seagrass resources (more than two-million acres), as well as its two most extensive, contiguous seagrass beds (i.e., Florida Bay and the Big Bend region). More... Factors that affect the establishment and growth of seagrass include light availability, water temperature, salinity, sediment composition, nutrient levels, wave energy, and tidal range. Seagrass most often occurs in areas of low to moderate current velocities where the water is clear; thereby allowing sunlight to penetrate to the leaf blades. Seagrass communities are highly productive, faunally rich, and ecologically important systems. Hundreds to thousands of species of flora and fauna may inhabit seagrass habitats utilizing food, substrate, and shelter provided by the plants. Seagrasses also stabilize sediments and help maintain water clarity. Download the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation chapter from the Strategy. What is being done to conserve Seagrass? A goal of Florida's Wildlife Legacy Initiative is to achieve long-term ecological sustainability of many of Florida's habitats - including submerged aquatic vegetation (sea grass). To achieve such a large goal, Legacy staff work to build partnerships with many agencies and organizations. The Florida Sea Grass Conservation Information System is a prime example of successful partnership facilitation. The system is a database developed by the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and Muller and Associates in the spring of 2001. The database was built to provide a valuable data-sharing resource to the sea grass conservation community. Project leaders provide details such as summaries, recommendations and the names of the agencies involved. The database is an updatable collection of these conservation projects and is the product of submissions from researchers all over the state. To allow users easy access to the specific information they need, projects in the database can be searched by region and by multiple project characteristics. Once users find a project that contains helpful information, details on how to contact the principal investigator with further questions also become available. The success and usefulness of the database is due to the contributions of many sea grass scientists willing to share information about their research and projects with others. For more information, please contact the FWLI Seagrass lead, Andrea Alden. Additional current and recent seagrass projects conducted by a variety of conservation partners include:
What wildlife species will benefit?
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Our mission: Managing fish and wildlife resources for their long-term well-being and the benefit of people.
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