Seagrass scorched in February heatwave
March 21, 2023
After the devastating impact of the February heatwave on the seagrass Zostera in the Port River, it was heartening today that some areas of short seagrass are alive at ECF’s Lipson South and Lipson North monitoring sites, though not further north along Torrens Island.
Regular seagrass monitoring volunteers, Steve Papp and Catherine McMahon, visited Torrens Island for a final ‘summer’ monitoring visit, before daytime low tides vanish (est 0.36m at 10.56am).
In ECF’s history of monitoring since 2018, Zostera has been better established at more northern sites along Torrens Island and progressively moved south. Today the southern sites were hosting live seagrass, while opposite ASC and on either side of the Torrens Island jetty, there were some areas covered by algae but no sign, as yet, of the seagrass reviving.
Steve Papp, north of TI Quarantine Station – no living seagrass
Algal mat on shoreline, south of TI Quarantine Station
Near the jetty, there was a small amount of longer seagrass on the ground, that appeared to have been dislodged (probably from areas covered by water) and brought onto the shore. Without wide healthy beds of seagrass, monitoring is more of a challenge on soggy ground.
Dislodged seagrass on shoreline, just north of TIQS
Catherine after checking algae (left) and seagrass (right) at Lipson north site
