The biomass-density relationship in seagrasses and its use as an ecological indicator.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Biomass-density relations have been at the centre of a search for an index which describes the health of seagrass meadows. However, this search has been complicated by the intricacy of seagrass demographics and their complex biomass-density relations, a consequence mainly of their modular growth and clonality. Concomitantly, biomass-density upper boundaries have been determined for terrestrial plants and algae, reflecting their asymptotic maximum efficiencies of space occupation. Each stand's distance to its respective biomass-density upper boundary reflects its effective efficiency in packing biomass, which has proved a reliable ecological indicator in order to discriminate between taxonomic groups, functional groups and clonal vs. non-clonal growth.

Results

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SUBMITTER: Vieira VMNCS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6195692 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature