Seagrass abundance and habitat criteria in the Maryland coastal bays

摘要: Seagrasses have been increasing annually since monitoring began in 1986. General consensus among the scientific community is that, despite recent increases documented by the aerial survey, seagrass coverage is considerably less than in the early 1900s. A disease virtually eliminated eelgrass (Zostera marinus) from the Coastal Bays in the 1930’s, leading to drastic declines in the acreage covered by seagrasses in general. The 2002 acreage represents the second highest total documented in the Coastal Bays, a 320% increase since annual data began to be collected in 1986. Even though the 2002 numbers show a decrease, seagrass acreage in Maryland’s Coastal Bays has increased steadily since annual monitoring began, declining only four times in the 18 year history of the survey. Although seagrasses are found in four major segments of Maryland’s Coastal Bays, they are not distributed evenly. Almost 85 percent of all seagrasses occur along the Assateague Island shoreline in Sinepuxent and Chincoteague Bays.