Multi-cellular Primary Producers: The Plants

• Worldwide, there are 5,000-6,000 species of seaweed and only 55 species of seagrass!

• Seagrasses are flowering plants belonging to the kingdom Plantae– Not actually a grass– Related to lilies; evolved

from land plants!– True leaves, stems, and

roots

Seagrasses

• Underground roots and rhizomes (horizontal stems) extract nutrients from the sediment and hold the plant in its place

• Seagrasses have cell walls made out of cellulose (a characteristic of all plants) which provide support for the plant and keep the plant vertical in the water column

Seagrasses

• Seagrass provides important shelter and food for many marine inhabitants

• Because of the protection they provide, seagrass communities serve as important nursery grounds for developing fish & shellfish

http://www.flickr.com/photos/19727876@N00/415368318/

Common seagrass of Long Island

http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/cms/jgallagher/tigani/kt_index.html

Zostera marina (“Eel grass”)