Seagrass is an underwater flowering plant that thrives in clear, sheltered, coastal waters around the world. As well as providing habitat for the marine fauna, seagrass meadows play an important role in the processes and resources of near-shore ecosystems. Coastal degradation of seagrass is prevalent along the metropolitan beaches of Adelaide, a problem common to settled coastal areas around the world, and although evidence from the literature suggests that loss of seagrass beds adversely affects the abundance of some coastal fish species, no quantification of the effect has been attempted. Moreover, although the economic value of seagrass as an 'ecosystem service' has been estimated, its value as a contributor to the productivity of the marine environment has not. In this thesis, mathematical and statistical models are used to explore the relationships that exist between seagrass habitats and the fish, crustacean, and mollusc species that depend upon them. The result is a model which estimates the annual value of seagrass loss to the secondary production in our coastal waters. / thesis (PhDMathematics)--University of South Australia, 2003.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/173396 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | McArthur, Lynne Caryn |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Lynne Caryn McArthur 2003 |
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