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Understanding Seagrass Effects on Biodiversity Levels

Coordinatore	UNIVERSIDAD DE CADIZ    more  Organization address address: CALLE ANCHA 16 city: CADIZ postcode: 11001 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Javier Cognome: Izquierdo Antón Email: send email Telefono: 34956015174 Fax: -34956015746
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Spain [ES]
Totale costo	45˙000 €
EC contributo	45˙000 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG
Funding Scheme	MC-ERG
Anno di inizio	2008
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2008-02-27   -   2011-02-26

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSIDAD DE CADIZ  Organization address address: CALLE ANCHA 16 city: CADIZ postcode: 11001 contact info Titolo: Mr. Nome: Javier Cognome: Izquierdo Antón Email: send email Telefono: 34956015174 Fax: -34956015746	ES (CADIZ)	coordinator	0.00

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Seagrasses are well known ecosystem engineers in that they can strongly affect the hydrodynamic environment within a meadow. Benthos diversity within a seagrass meadow will predominantly consist of filter feeders and deposit feeders. For their food supply, filter feeders will benefit from strong hydrodynamics that cause a high refreshment rate of the water column, whereas deposit feeders will benefit from attenuated hydrodynamic energy that enhances seston deposition at the sediment surface. The extend to which hydrodynamic energy within a meadow will be modified (and thus the different forms of food are supplied) is largely determined by shoot characteristics such as shoot density, shoot stiffness, shoot length, etc. in combination with the patchiness of the meadow and in combination with external forcing (velocity range and presence or absence of waves). However, literature offers contradictory results when biodiversity of filter feeder organisms within seagrasses beds is analyzed. While several works showed that filter feeders growth in seagrass beds are lower than in unvegetated areas, others concluded that these organisms obtain benefits living inside meadows. We hypothesized that such discrepancies may be related to the interplay between flow characteristics and seagrass canopy properties which will enhance or decrease the food supply to animals and in a later stage influence the biodiversity of filter-feeder and deposit organisms.'