Seagrasses are ecosystem engineers that provide dozens of services to marine environments, most important of which is buffering water quality changes. In many mid-Atlantic areas, seagrasses are in decline or have disappeared due in part to water contamination. In many developing coastal countries, bleach is commonly used to aid the harvesting of reef fish and crustaceans and; for example, by injecting it into lobster dens. This research aimed to assess the coverage of seagrass off the coast of South Caicos, and to evaluate whether or not the coverage declination, if any, is correlated to bleach use. At seven different locations, a total of 48 100-m seagrass transects were evaluated and 62 water samples were analyzed. The statistical analysis concluded that seagrass is in decline, and it does correlate to bleach contamination. Future research will evaluate how significant the bleach is to the ongoing decline of seagrass in the area.

Declining seagrass meadow coverage and its correlation to bleach contamination in South Caicos

251st National Meeting (2016)

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