. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Kicking Up More Than Clams Studying the effects of clam kicking on seagrass Bij Atlcu Wevis mSSSSSi. BY KATHY HART Peterson paints clams for later identification in the laboratory he results can be deci- phered from graphs in a sci- entific paper. But the real proof is a grass bed in Back Sound. Either way, the conclusion is the same: clam kicking is harmful to seagrass beds. And anything that ad- versely affects seagrass spells trouble, unproductive trouble. As part of a large Sea Grant project to study t
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Kicking Up More Than Clams Studying the effects of clam kicking on seagrass Bij Atlcu Wevis mSSSSSi. BY KATHY HART Peterson paints clams for later identification in the laboratory he results can be deci- phered from graphs in a sci- entific paper. But the real proof is a grass bed in Back Sound. Either way, the conclusion is the same: clam kicking is harmful to seagrass beds. And anything that ad- versely affects seagrass spells trouble, unproductive trouble. As part of a large Sea Grant project to study the biology of the hard clam and the effects of its harvesting methods, researcher Charles "Pete" Peterson sectioned off plots of sea- grass in Back Sound to test the effects of clam kicking. Some of the plots were left untouched and used as con- trols to measure against the effects of raking, light kicking and intense kick- ing in other plots. In the raking and light kicking plots, seagrass biomass dropped approxi- mately 25 percent immediately after harvest. But within a year's time, these beds completely recovered. In the intensely kicked plots, sea- grass biomass fell by about 65 percent immediately after harvest. The beds did not begin to recover for two years. And four years later, the intensely kicked plots still had 35 percent less seagrass than the control plots. Why the concern for a bed of sub- merged grass? Peterson explains: "Sea- grass stimulates productivity. It's part of the detrital food chain. The grasses also function as habitat for small inver- tebrates and other creatures. It pro- vides a surface for the attachment of young scallops, and juvenile clam set- tlement is higher in grass beds. It also affects shrimp ; The bottom line? Seagrass is an important part of the estuarine ecosys- tem. It provides food, directly or indi- rectly, refuge and habitat for the small-. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
