Table 1 Summary of seagrass zone characteristics, species-level grain size data, mass of sediment per leaf and epibiotic sediment production rates.
From: Seagrass meadows are important sources of reef island-building sediment
Zone | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Z1a | Z1b | Z2 | Z3 | ||
Zone characteristics | Area (km2) | 0.421 | 0.022 | 0.336 | 0.328 |
% Seagrass cover | 61 ± 3% | 22 ± 13% | 63 ± 4% | 24 ± 3% | |
% T. ciliatum | 91 ± 3% | 100 ± 0% | 69 ± 4% | 14 ± 4% | |
% T. hemprichii | 9 ± 3% | 0 ± 0% | 31 ± 4% | 86 ± 4% | |
Leaf density (m−2) | 1,937 ± 98 | 1,019 ± 568 | 1,799 ± 94 | 1,542 ± 119 | |
Mean grain size (μm), ±1 S.D. | Pre-agitation, T. ciliatum | 744 ± 474 | 318 ± 84 | 186 ± 15 | 463 ± 302 |
Pre-agitation, T. hemprichii | 669 ± 270 | 1050 ± 452 | 486 ± 119 | 798 ± 296 | |
Post-agitation, T. ciliatum | 247 ± 23 | 252 ± 43 | 229 ± 11 | 222 ± 29 | |
Post-agitation, T. hemprichii | 240 ± 20 | 236 ± 14 | 204 ± 51 | 270 ± 47 | |
% sand-sized sediment (>63 μm), ±1 S.D. | Pre-agitation, T. ciliatum | 84 ± 14% | 67 ± 4% | 66 ± 5% | 75 ± 17% |
Pre-agitation, T. hemprichii | 84 ± 11% | 90 ± 17% | 72 ± 10% | 87 ± 5% | |
Post-agitation, T. ciliatum | 65 ± 3% | 58 ± 7% | 57 ± 1% | 64 ± 11% | |
Post-agitation, T. hemprichii | 65 ± 7% | 62 ± 1% | 46 ± 17% | 74 ± 8% | |
g CaCO3 per leaf | T. ciliatum | 0.06 ± 0.01 | 0.06 ± 0.01 | 0.07 ± 0.01 | 0.06 ± 0.01 |
T. hemprichii | 0.05 ± 0.01 | 0.06 ± 0.01 | 0.06 ± 0.01 | 0.05 ± 0.01 | |
Rate CaCO3 production (kg m−2 yr−1), ± cumulative error | T. ciliatum | 0.41 ± 0.07 | 0.22 ± 0.13 | 0.34 ± 0.06 | 0.05 ± 0.02 |
T. hemprichii | 0.11 ± 0.05 | 0 ± 0 | 0.43 ± 0.11 | 0.81 ± 0.21 | |
Total | 0.52 ± 0.09 | 0.22 ± 0.13 | 0.77 ± 0.13 | 0.86 ± 0.21 | |
Rate sand-sized CaCO3 production (kg m−2 per year), ± cumulative error | T. ciliatum | 0.27 ± 0.05 | 0.13 ± 0.08 | 0.19 ± 0.03 | 0.03 ± 0.01 |
T. hemprichii | 0.07 ± 0.03 | 0 ± 0 | 0.20 ± 0.07 | 0.60 ± 0.16 | |
Total | 0.34 ± 0.06 | 0.13 ± 0.08 | 0.39 ± 0.08 | 0.63 ± 0.16 | |
