Productive capacities of tropical seagrasses communities at three locations along the East Coast of Queensland and their potential for carbon sequestration
Conference Contribution ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Intertidal and subtidal meadows feed into oceanic nutrient cycles and significantly contribute to carbon sequestration, though this can vary markedly between locations and species. Measuring productivity rates of seagrass meadows provides a tool to assess their prospective input to marine primary productivity and how this may be influenced by future environmental and habitat change. Seagrass abundance, growth rates, reproductive capacity and community structure were investigated in different seagrass community types at three different locations along the east coast of Queensland to estimate above and below-ground productivity and carbon assimilation. Results indicated that net primary productivity (g C m-2 day-1) in the Torres Strait was moderately higher than that of tropical coastal seagrasses studied in Gladstone Harbour and substantially higher than the most southern location studied at Abbot Point. Variation in rates of leaf growth (g DW shoot-1 day-1) and rhizome extension (mm shoot-1 day-1) were strongly seasonal and may indicate a trade-off in resource allocation. For leaf replacing species in the Torres Strait, production at the rhizome meristem (growing tip) was generally much higher than for production in the leaf shoot, adding significantly to the total production and carbon assimilated by seagrasses. The results of these studies will be synthesised to provide a broad-scale depiction of the productive capacity of three different seagrass community types and the potential of each for carbon sequestration.
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AMSA 2013 Shaping the Future: 50th Annual Conference of the Australian Marine Sciences Association
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9780987590800
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1
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Gold Coast, Queensland
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Australian Marine Sciences Association
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