Elsevier

Aquatic Botany

Volume 72, Issue 2, March 2002, Pages 183-189
Aquatic Botany

Short communication
Biomass, production and rhizome growth near the northern limit of seagrass (Zostera marina) distribution

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3770(01)00225-XGet rights and content

Abstract

The biomass, shoot density, community production, and rhizome growth of Zostera marina stands were studied in the Hopavagen lagoon, Norway (63°35′65″N, 9°32′80″E), the northern-most location where seagrass growth and production has been studied. The nordic Z. marina patches were dense (>2700 shoot m−2), with relatively small shoots (33–54 mg DW), so that the aboveground biomass developed was relatively low (about 140 g DW m−2). The stands were moderately productive, at about 2 g O2 m−2 per day, similar to the average community respiration rate. The sequence of internodal lengths in the rhizome fragments harvested showed a clear annual cycle, indicating that the populations are perennial (rhizomes >2-year-old) producing about 25 leaves per shoot and 30 cm of rhizome annually. The leaf plastochrone interval, of about 15 days, was close to that reported for stands situated as much as 25°S.

Introduction

Seagrasses are present in all but the polar oceans, with eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), present in the northern Pacific and northern Atlantic, being the seagrass species reaching to the highest latitudes, within the Arctic Circle (den Hartog, 1970). As a consequence of this broad distribution, the ecology of eelgrass has received considerable research effort (Duarte, 1999), with reports ranging from subtropical areas to the White Sea (Jacobs, 1984). Yet, the bulk of the assessments on eelgrass growth and production have focused on subtropical to north-temperate stands of the species, with the northern-most growth and production studies we are aware of conducted at around 55°N (Alaska, e.g. McRoy, 1969, and Denmark, e.g. Sand-Jensen, 1975), still far away from the species’ reported northern limit at the Arctic Circle (den Hartog, 1970).

Here we report on the biomass, shoot density, community production, and rhizome growth of Z. marina stands studied in the Hopavagen lagoon (Norway). The results presented here show eelgrass is able to maintain substantial growth and production at the northern-most location where it has yet been studied.

Section snippets

Methods

The study was conducted in mid-September, the period when eelgrass is expected to have already reached its maximum seasonal development (Duarte, 1989), at the Hopavagen lagoon (63°35′65″N, 9°32′80″E, Norway), a lagoon connected to the sea by a narrow inlet, with a 1–1.5 m tidal range, in a coastal area dominated by rocky shores. Z. marina was found growing in patches of various sizes whenever sandy sediments occurred in the upper subtidal. Two such patches were selected for this study.

In each of

Results and discussion

The two nordic Z. marina patches studied were dense (>2700 shoot m−2, Table 1), and none of the shoots was reproductive at the time of observation. Although flowering may have occurred prior to our visit, we found no seedlings growing on the bare sediments surrounding the patches, so patch formation appears to be relatively sparse in the studied area. The shoots were relatively small (33–54 mg DW per shoot), so that the aboveground biomass developed was relatively modest, and rather similar across

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Trondheim Research Infrastructure program of the CE (project HPRI-1999-CT00060). We thank Nils Tokle, Olav Vadstain and Yngvar Olsen for hospitality and logistic assistance, and Hartvig Christie for bringing the presence of eelgrass in the Hopavagen lagoon to our attention. C.B. was supported by a scholarship from the Balearic government.

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