Tracing groundwater effects on abundance and diversity of lagoonal seagrasses.

Abstract

The second objective of the GROFLO project is to elucidate differences in nearshore community structures and ecosystem functions in relation to groundwater outflow. In February 1998 the second seagrass survey was carried out on Zanzibar. The aim of the survey was the same as in the first survey, in March 1997 in Kenya: to relate the rate of coastal groundwater outwelling to abundance, species diversity, productivity and population dynamics of lagoonal seagrasses. In this report results of both surveys on abundance and species diversity will be compared. Productivity and population dynamic samples are being analysed and those results will be presented in the next report.