Seagrasses form productive marine ecosystems that serve as important foraging grounds for grazers. Meadow productivity is vulnerable to environmental change, however, because environmental factors often strongly regulate seagrass growth. Understanding effects of grazing and environmental driver interactions on growth dynamics is therefore needed to ensure the long‐term sustainability of seagrass meadow foraging habitats. We simulated natural green turtle (
Increasing green turtle abundance will lead to increased grazing within seagrass habitats—ecosystems that are important for carbon sequestration and storage. However, it is not well understood how carbon dynamics in these ecosystems respond to grazing and whether a response differs among meadows or locations. We measured seagrass ecosystem metabolism in grazed and ungrazed areas of Across all individual sites, rates of net ecosystem production (NEP) ranged from 56% to 96% lower in grazed areas than ungrazed areas of
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10453675
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Ecology
- Volume:
- 108
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0022-0477
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1101-1114
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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