ABSTRACT
CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 175 Materials and Methods .......................................................................................................................... 176
Study Area .................................................................................................................................... 176 Sampling Methodology ................................................................................................................ 177 Statistical Analyses....................................................................................................................... 178
Results .................................................................................................................................................... 179 Biological Parameters................................................................................................................... 179 Principal Components Analysis ................................................................................................... 185
Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 187 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................ 189 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................. 190 References .............................................................................................................................................. 190
Seagrasses are the dominant communities in many coastal environments of tropical and subtropical zones (den Hartog, 1970). As the climax communities in these systems (den Hartog, 1977), seagrass beds fulfill several functions: they stabilize bottom sediments, form structural substrate for epiphytic growth, provide nursery habitat and shelter to many organisms, and, most important, fix large amounts of carbon by photosynthesis, which becomes available via direct herbivory and the detrital food web, both within the system and by export to other systems (Zieman, 1982; Thayer et al., 1984; Kenworthy et al., 1988; Duarte, 1989). The shallow distribution and close proximity to the land/sea interface of seagrass beds cause them to be sensitive to changes in estuarine and nearshore marine environments. Therefore, the distribution, abundance, and condition of seagrasses may be indicative of the health of coastal ecosystems.
