Why Seagrass?
Seagrass beds are highly productive habitats, and provide structure and food for dense and diverse communities of animals. Seagrasses stabilize sediment, buffer coastlines, and improve water clarity, nutrient cycling and production. In many areas of the world eelgrass and other seagrasses serve as nursery habitats for juvenile fishes and shellfish, thus providing essential habitat for fisheries.
These fishes and shrimps were collected by seining from eelgrass at the ZEN site in southern Japan and illustrate the assemblage of predatory animals living there. Eelgrass beds, similar to many seagrasses, are heavily impacted and are declining worldwide. Our goal is that research supported by ZEN may be used to both understand basic ecological theory and to better inform regional managers for conservation and restoration of this critical coastal habitat.
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ZEN- Global ecological challenges require large-scale scientific networks 9 September 2015by Pamela Reynolds (ZEN postdoc and coordinator) While at Ecological Society of America meeting (#ESA100) in Baltimore in August, 2015 I attended and participated in the discussions surrounding a special session titled “Collaborative Ecological Research Networks: Sociology, Successes, and Future Opportunities.” I wrote a blog post about this session and thePamela
- ZEN at #ESA100 4 September 2015In August 2015 several of the ZEN partners traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to present their research and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ecological Society of America (#ESA100). This was a very large meeting and a big occasion for the organization - even the president wished ESA a happy birthday! “Happy 100th birthday to the Ecological Society of […]Pamela
- Global ecological challenges require large-scale scientific networks 9 September 2015
[...] just as a teaser, we are in final stages of analysis of the ZEN 2011 global seagrass experiment. Stay tuned for actual scientific results! Soon . . [...]