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Restoration of Seagrasses: With Economic Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Anitra Thorhaug  and
C. Bruce Austin
Anitra Thorhaug
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Miami, 10 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149, U.S.A.
C. Bruce Austin
Affiliation:
School of Economics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida 33134, and Department of Biology & Living Resources, RSMAS, 10 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149, U.S.A.
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Extract

The technique of restoration of populations of land plants is an old one that is well understood by scientists, agronomists, forestry experts, and the general public. However, only recently has attention been turned to restoring underwater areas with socalled seagrasses. From 1947 onwards, attempts have been made to restore suitable marine areas by using important species; however, only very recently (from August 1973) have large-scale restoration projects been undertaken.

The efforts that have been made to replant various seagrass species by different techniques are reviewed, but only two seagrasses, Zostera noltii and Thalassia testudinum, have been restored on a large scale. Both of these can be restored successfully; however, the seeding method of Thalassia appears to be the most practical operation of all, and the most potentially valuable for future research into large-scale restoration, as it allows flexibility of location and of depth of transplantation, and involves the minimum of damage to the donor site. It also ensures the most rapid regrowth, besides being in the long run the most economical method yet devised of restoring a seagrass community. An economic model (see Technical Appendix to this paper) and analysis for restoration costs are given and finally a wide range of uses of restoration of such beds of seagrasses are enumerated.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , Winter 1976 , pp. 259 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1976

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