Determining historic extent of seagrass (Zostera marina) cover in Virginia's coastal bays

Seagrasses can be found all over the world and are often the main structural habitat for shallow marine communities. Urbanization and other anthropogenic stresses have brought about extensive declines in seagrass cover along many coasts. In the Delmarva coastal bays, however, the combination of a slime mold disease and major hurricane in 1933 resulted in the devastation of the seagrass ecosystems.

 

Seagrass recovered in parts of the Chesapeake Bay and the northern coastal bays of the Delmarva Peninsula, but did not recover in the southern bays of Virginia. In the late 1990s, the discovery of a small natural patch of Z. marina was followed by small-scale restoration experiments with seeds and adult plants. Large-scale, seed-based restorations in South Bay (2001) and Hog Island Bay (2007) resulted in the establishment of a substantial Z. marina ecosystem.

 

The main objectives of this study were to determine the extent to which the reestablishment of Z. marina influences

sediment geochemistry, and to find evidence of historic seagrass meadows.