Seagrass Morphological Characters in Islands with Different Distance from the Mainland
Khairul Amri 1), Supriadi Mashoreng 1), Dody Priosambodo 2) and Nurjannah Nurdin 1)

1) Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Marine Science and Fisheries, Universitas Hasanuddin
2). Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, Universitas Hasanuddin

Abstract

Seagrass is an ecosystem that has various important physical and ecological functions in coastal areas. However, its existence is heavily influenced by natural and anthropogenic factors. Research to see the effect of the location of the island from the mainland on the morphological characters of seagrass has been carried out on four islands in the Spermonde archipelago, namely Lae-Lae and Satando (near the mainland of Sulawesi Island) and Barranglompo and Samatellu Borong (further from the mainland of Sulawesi Island). Seagrass samples were collected using a line transect method. Several morphological characters measured were leaf length, leaf width, rhizome diameter, internode lenth and number of roots. The results showed that more seagrass species were found on islands far from the mainland. The morphometric characteristics of the seagrass Enhalus acoroides on islands near the mainland have wider leaves, and larger rhizome diameters, but have lower leaf length, rhizome length, internode length and number of roots compared to the seagrass Enhalus acoroides on islands farther away. More intense epiphytic attachments on seagrass blades on seagrass beds closer to the mainland indicating high nutrient runoff through river and drainage in the mainland.

Keywords: Seagrass, morphology, Enhalus aoroides

Topic: Aquatic Ecology and Conservation (International)