Colonization of Dredged Material Placement Areas by Shoalgrass in Lower Laguna211 Madre, Texas, and the Habitat Value of These Sites for Fishery Species

摘要

This project was designed to document the effects of transplanting on seagrass re-211u001evegetation rate at dredged material placement areas and to compare utilization of 211u001ethese sites by fishes and crustaceans with that in adjacent re-vegetated 211u001eplacement areas and in undisturbed seagrass beds. The objective of the project 211u001ewas to determine whether dredged material placement operations can be modified to 211u001eincrease the seagrass re-vegetation rate between dredging cycles and thus improve 211u001ehabitat value over a shorter time frame. Water re-vegetation rate between 211u001edredging cycles and thus improve habitat value over a shorter time frame. Water 211u001equality, light transmittance, seagrass density, sediment characteristics, and 211u001edensities of fishery species and other natant macrofauna were measured at, and 211u001eadjacent to, two experimental re-vegetation sites in Lower Laguna Madre near 211u001eSouth Padre Island. Dredge deposits at experimental sites were completed in 211u001eNovember 1994, and Halodule wrightii (shoalgrass) was transplanted onto the sites 211u001ein June and September 1995.