Seagrasses

Sexual recruitment

Seagrasses have contrasting colonisation strategies. Some seagrasses form seed banks of small seeds with hard pericarps that can remain in the dormancy stage for several months. These seagrasses are generally short-lived and can recover quickly from disturbances by not germinating far away from parent meadows (e.g., Halophila sp., Halodule sp., Cymodocea sp., Zostera sp. and Heterozostera sp.). In contrast, other seagrasses form dispersalpropagules. This strategy is typical of long-lived seagrasses that can form buoyant fruits with inner large non-dormant seeds, such as the genera Posidonia sp., Enhalus sp. and Thalassia sp. Accordingly, the seeds of long-lived seagrasses have a large dispersal capacity compared to the seeds of the short-lived type, which permits the evolution of species beyond unfavourable light conditions by the seedling development of parent meadows.