Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Unh Eelgrass (Zostera Marina) Monitoring Program For 2010-2014: Quality Assurance Project Plan, Frederick T. Short, Phil Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is essential to estuarine ecology because it filters nutrients and suspended particles from water, stabilizes sediments, provides food for wintering waterfowl, and provides habitat for juvenile fish and shellfish, as well as being the basis of an important estuarine food web. Healthy eelgrass both depends on and contributes to good water quality. The UNH Seagrass Ecology Lab, has mapped the distribution of eelgrass every year from 1986 through 2009 in the Great Bay. The entire Great Bay Estuary (Great Bay, Little Bay, tidal tributaries, Piscataqua River, Little Harbor, and Portsmouth Harbor) was mapped by these researchers in …