ARTIFICIAL SEAGRASS - A NEW TECHNIQUE FOR SAMPLING THE COMMUNITY

An artificial seagrass bed constructed from polyweave webbing ribbons mounted on weighted nylon mesh is described. To illustrate the effectiveness of this sampler, results from an 8 week study in which such samplers were harvested following 2, 4 and 8 weeks of colonisation are presented and compared with data taken contemporaneously from adjacent natural Zostera beds. These show that two weeks colonisation period is adequate with a greater number of taxa being found in the artificial situation, though some selectivity in species composition was evident and numbers of organisms per m2 was lower in most taxa than in the natural situation. © 1979 Dr. W. Junk b.v. Publishers.