Epiphyte presence and seagrass species identity influence rates of herbivory in Mediterranean seagrass meadows

Lack of Impact of Posidonia oceanica Leaf Nutrient Enrichment on Sarpa salpa Herbivory: Additional Evidence for the Generalist Consumer Behavior of This Cornerstone Mediterranean Herbivore

“…oceanica meadows. Sarpa salpa mobility and broad diet (not only based on seagrasses but other macrophytes, see [7,8,27] could likely explain the variable foraging pattern observed. This may be reflecting an ensemble of complex feeding decisions influenced by chemical and structural macrophytes features, home-range mobility, as well as by temporal and spatial differences in the availability of food resources [11,13,28,42,43], that aimed at optimizing the intake of energy and essential dietary elements within the habitats.…”

“…salpa has been shown to be an important herbivore accounting for 70% of the total leaf consumption of P . oceanica [5], although it is also known to ingest large quantities of other macrophytes species [7,8] and to display high spatial and temporal variability in its herbivory pressure [5,9,10]. Some of the factors involved in S .…”

“…Recent studies have found that not only seagrasses but also other macrophytes species such as Caulerpa sp. [7,8,27] may have an important contribution to S . salpa diet and that final consumption rates and dietary differences may not only be determined by nutritional content but by other macrophytes features [28,29].…”

Distribution modeling of seagrasses in brackish waters of Grado-Marano lagoon (Northern Adriatic Sea)

“…In these regions, they often act as ecological engineers (Wright and Jones, 2006), forming extensive meadows that are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth (McRoy and McMillan, 1997;Duarte and Chiscano, 1999). Seagrass meadows provide key ecosystem services, including organic carbon production and export, nutrient cycling, sediment stabilization, biodiversity, and trophic transfers to adjacent habitats (Duarte et al, 2005;Duffy, 2006;Orth et al, 2006;Cullen-Unsworth and Unsworth, 2013;Marco-M endez et al, 2015). Although widely distributed, seagrasses have experienced a large-scale decrease in the last decades in most of worldwide populations (Borum et al, 2004;Waycott et al, 2009).…”

Variability in patterns of macro-epiphytic leaf community of Posidonia oceanica in the Islands of Kuriate: Western coast of Tunisia

“…Epiphytes and scraped leaves were oven-dried at 60 °C for 48 h before weighing. Biomass was expressed in g dry weight/shoot [31,32].…”