Effects of Shading on the Growth and Carbon Storage of Enhalus acoroides

Light intensity is one of the main factors determining the growth and distribution of seagrasses, but seagrasses differ in their responses to changes in the light environment, resulting in inconsistent adaptation. To investigate the effect of light reduction on Enhalus acoroides (L. f.) Steud., we s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied sciences Vol. 13; no. 10; p. 6035
Main Authors Fu, Miao, Song, Yanwei, Wang, Yang, Fu, Guowei, Zhang, Xiang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 14.05.2023
Subjects
Adaptation
Biomass
Carbon sequestration
carbon storage
Chlorophyll
Climate change
Enhalus acoroides
growth
Leaves
Light
Light intensity
Luminous intensity
Morphology
Planting density
Plants
Potassium
Prolongation
Seagrasses
Sediments
Shading
Solar energy
Storage capacity
Variance analysis
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Summary:Light intensity is one of the main factors determining the growth and distribution of seagrasses, but seagrasses differ in their responses to changes in the light environment, resulting in inconsistent adaptation. To investigate the effect of light reduction on Enhalus acoroides (L. f.) Steud., we simulated different light intensities by setting up in situ shade shelters with three light environments: full light (CK), moderate shading (MS) and high shading (HS), and investigated the growth response and adaptation mechanism of E. acoroides to a low-light environment. The results showed that the leaf length and leaf width of E. acoroides decreased in the low-light environment. Plant density, biomass, and chlorophyll content (Chl) decreased significantly with the prolongation of shading. In addition, the sediment carbon content of seagrass beds was significantly reduced in the shading treatments compared to the full-light treatment. After the restoration of light, the chlorophyll content of E. acoroides increased compared to that in the shading period, but its leaf morphology, plant density and biomass did not return to the level of full light treatment. Our study highlights that long-term light reduction leads to a significant reduction in seagrass biomass and its sediment carbon content, which in turn, may reduce the carbon storage capacity of seagrass beds.
ISSN:2076-3417
2076-3417
DOI:10.3390/app13106035