Hurricane effects on seagrasses along Alabama's Gulf Coast |
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| Authors: | Dorothy Byron Kenneth L Heck |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;(2) Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA;(3) U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Daphne Field Office, Daphne, AL, USA |
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| Abstract: | In November 2004, we evaluated the effect of Hurricane Ivan on seagrass meadows in Alabama by surveying all coastal locations
known to support seagrass prior to Hurricane Ivan's Iandfall in September 2004. We found that 82% of the sites containing
seagrass in 2002 still supported seagrass, and that, as in 2002, the most abundant species wasHalodule wrightii (shoalgrass). We also found more sites containingRuppia maritima (widgeongrass) than previously recorded. We confirmed the existence ofThalassia testudinum (turtlegrass) in Little Lagoon, Alabama, whose first record in the state had been noted in 2002. A resurvey of the western
half of Alabama's coastal waters in October 2005 after Hurricane Katrina found no loss of seagrass, with all sites that supported
seagrass in 2004 still containing seagrass in 2005. There was no major loss of Alabama's seagrass resources due to Hurricanes
Ivan or Katrina, even though both category 3 hurricanes severely affected the northern Gulf Coast. |
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