The design of nature is built upon a complex connectivity of one organism to a number of other organisms.
Disrupt one piece of the structure and several organisms will feel the consequence.
Eelgrass is an example of this interdependency for a vast array of aquatic species.
There are both freshwater and saltwater eelgrass species and they all benefit from clean water and support a wide array of other species.
They also may succumb to common pollution sources, which can cause the collapse of an entire ecosystem.
The focus of this week’s column is on the saltwater species, Zostera marina, commonly called marine eelgrass.
In a healthy environment, eelgrass grows from two to eight feet (.61 to 2.4 meters) below the surface and can grow over three feet (one meter) long. It can be found in sandy or muddy bottoms.
The entire life cycle occurs underwater — feeding, flowering, pollination, and seed distribution. The plant may also propagate by the spread of its rhizome root structure much like ferns do.
The dense grass offers hiding and a feeding refuge for many tiny crustaceans as well as schools of small minnows.
Larva of bivalves such as clams and oysters will find protection for this part of their growing stage.
The meadows of eelgrass act as a strainer for decaying plant and fish matter, which in turn attracts sea worms, snails, and starfish.
Predators are attracted to the rich diversity of foods and larger fish, ducks, and great blue herons are a common sight as they feed in the shallow water.
Like its counterpart on land, eelgrass also helps to stabilize the structure of underwater soils and offers protection from soil erosion as waves lap at the tide line.
In the 1930s, a slime mold called Labyrinthula zosterae wiped out 90 percent of North America’s eelgrass on the east coast. It took over four decades for the grass to recover and for the ecosystem of marine life to reestablish itself.
Wakening to the profound role eelgrass plays in the inter-tidal ecosystem, coastal communities are now paying more attention to the protection of eelgrass and monitoring the nitrogen loading from land-based sources.
Some of the nitrogen is absorbed by the grass but most of it encourages the growth of algae, which can smother the plant and cloud the water, interfering with the plant’s photosynthesis.
Common sources for nitrogen loading come from sewage treatment outfall, farm and lawn fertilizers, and storm water runoff.
Studies show that two other human sources are killing off eelgrass: docks and boats.
Sediments get suspended in the water by motors of boats and jet-skis. The sediment then blocks the plant’s ability for photosynthesis. Docks built out over eelgrass beds will further reduce the plant’s ability to use the sunlight.
Eelgrass does not have the commercial value it used to for the past 400 years. It was used as home insulation and as stuffing for mattresses and furniture and as shipping material. There is evidence that it was also used as food.
Today, the importance of eelgrass is its ability to have and maintain a healthy ecosystem the way nature intended it to be.
The two sources that negatively impact eelgrass are water quality and human activity.
There are steps at the “you and me” level that we can take to preserve eelgrass:
- Check with your town to see what protection is provided for eelgrass. Encourage regulations to protect eelgrass meadows.
- Boaters should not allow re-suspension of sediments with their motors and they should use pump-out stations for their discharge.
- Don’t anchor in eelgrass areas.
- Instead of building docks, use a dingy to get to the boat.
- Lawn care practices should minimize fertilizers and protect nitrogen from flowing into streams, parking lots, and streets. Don’t be fooled into thinking organic fertilizers are better than chemical ones when it comes to nitrogen.
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