Research

FAUNAL COMMUNITIES IN SEAGRASS MEADOWS

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Seagrass meadows are important habitats that serve as nursery, feeding, and sheltering grounds for many marine species. Florida seagrass meadows are inhabited by a diverse and great abundance of animals, including many that are both ecologically- and economically-important (e.g., to commercial and recreational fisheries), and 120 species of fish and 37 species of macro-invertebrates identified as “species of greatest conservation need” by the Florida Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Many of these animals are found in the Big Bend region of Florida (from Anclote Key north to Apalachee Bay), home of one of the largest (approx 3000 km2) and most pristine seagrass meadows in North America. Management and conservation efforts directed for these species require information on their distributions and relative abundances within Florida seagrass meadows. Although both past and ongoing research and monitoring efforts in the Big Bend seagrass meadows have addressed many important issues, most have been conducted at relatively local scales and none have set out to characterize the faunal communities across the entire region.

In the current study, Chris Koenig and I are identifying the species composition, distribution, and abundance of animals in seagrass meadows across the Big Bend region. Habitats and their associated faunal communities are often spatially heterogeneous and therefore limit inference from work conducted at local and fine spatial scales. The seagrass meadows in the Big Bend differ spatially with regard to the species composition, density, and biomass of seagrasses. Such differences may be correlated with both fine- and broad-scale environmental parameters, which may directly and/or indirectly (e.g., mediated through habitat) affect the composition of the faunal communities. A clear understanding of how these factors and the faunal communities interact across the spatial extent of the entire Big Bend region is crucial to proper management and conservation efforts, particularly as coastal development and other human activities increase in the area.

This project benefits greatly from field and lab assistance from several FSU graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in the Certificate Program in Marine Biology and is generously funded by a grant from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.