This issue highlights the impact of rising sea temperatures on seagrasses."2009 ends the world's warmest decade on record" begins Len McKenzie in this article. He also shares that "over the years the Seagrass-Watch program has reported many instances when intertidal seagrasses have been observed to be 'burnt'." It is not an isolated phenomenon, and has been observed across several countries, species and intertidal seagrass habitats.
Alas, we have seen 'burnt' seagrass too on Singapore shores. What does this mean and what can we do? Read more in the article.Then there is an article by Fiona Bishop about an outbreak of Lyngbya in Broome, Australia.
A bloom of this cyanobacteria can smother seagrasses. And I found out that the cyanobacteria can "become toxic at certain stages of its development" and the toxins can become airborne and may be inhaled when the cyanobacteria dries up. This can affect humans, and animals too.
This hairy stuff looks very much like something that we sometimes see on our own shores! Read more about this in the article.There is also an article about seagrass cycles, and another about the effect of cyclones on seagrasses.
But not all is doom and gloom. There are articles with great photos of locations like Seribu and Pangandaran. (We should take a nice photo of our sea stars in seagrasses too!)
And this great issue ends with a fantastic article about sea hares! Len and Rudi have kindly used photos of Singapore sea hares! Learn more about these fascinating beasts in the article.
Download the full magazine from the Seagrass-Watch website.
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