Seagrass

Seagrass, originally uploaded by Ladymaggic.

The shores are full of sea-grass
This is Dugong Food so it means that if there is an abundance of sea grass, the dugongs will be feeding

A 24 km2 seagrass meadow in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia was confirmed as important dugong habitat on the basis of the tracking data. Marine videography, Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were used to survey, analyse and map seagrass species composition, nutrient profile and patch structure of the meadow at high resolution (200 m). Five species of seagrass covered 91 % of the total habitat area. The total above and below-ground seagrass biomass was estimated to be 222.7 ± s.e. 19.6 t dry-weight. Halodule uninervis dominated the pasture (81.8 %, 162.2 t), followed by Halophila ovalis (35.3 %, 16.5 t), Zostera capricorni (15.9 %, 22.2 t), Halophila spinulosa (14.5 %, 21.9 t), and traces of Halodule pinifolia. Because the distributions of the various seagrass species overlapped, their combined percentage totalled > 100 % of the survey area. The seagrass formed a continuous meadow of varying density.
For all seagrass species, the above-ground component (shoots and leaves) possessed greater total nitrogen than the below-ground component (roots and rhizomes), which possessed greater total starch. Because of the relatively low intraspecific variation in nutrient composition, nutrients were concentrated according to seagrass biomass density. H. uninervis was the most nutritious seagrass species because of its higher whole-plant nitrogen (1.28 ± s.e. 0.05 % DW) and starch (6.42 ± s.e. 0.50 DW %) content. H. uninervis formed large, clustered patches of dense biomass across the pasture and thus nitrogen and starch were concentrated where H. uninervis was prevalent. These survey and analytical techniques enabled me to rapidly, economically and accurately quantify and characterise seagrass habitat at scales relevant to a large forager.

http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/2097/