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| Male turtlegrass flower with invertebrate. Photo from article by Brigit van Tussenbroek on the World Seagrass Association blog |
Possible zoophilous pollination of turtlegrass by marine invertebrates
By Brigit van Tussenbroek on the World Seagrass Association blog
Small invertebrates play a central role in seagrass communities as controllers of epiphyton and conduits for energy transfer from primary producers to higher trophic levels. Van Tussenbroek and collaborators at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, highlight a new interaction between meso-grazers and seagrasses by describing the foraging of invertebrates on the pollen/mucilage masses of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum during the night.
The fauna visiting the flowers was highly diverse 252 specimens belonging to 37 families and 57 species of crustaceans (Classes Maxillopoda, Ostracoda and Malacostraca) were found on 76 flowers, and 15 species were new records for the region. Annelids (mainly polychaetes) were less abundant (60 specimens) and diversified (13 species) and they exhibited no obvious differences in their visits to flowers with or without pollen. Negative consequences for reproductive success of the seagrass of the consumption of pollen by the invertebrates were most likely insignificant, because the quantities of removed pollen were very small. However, these invertebrates may serve as pollinators of T. testudinum, which if confirmed, makes this observation the first record of animal-pollination in the marine environment.
Check out the YouTube video
Full paper
Brigitta I. van Tussenbroek, L. Veronica Monroy-Velazquez, Vivianne Solis-Weiss Meso-fauna foraging on seagrass pollen may serve in marine zoophilous pollination
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v469/p1-6/
Animals Contribute to Seagrass Dispersal: Fish, Terrapins, and Birds May Help Spread Eelgrass Seeds Into New Areas
Science Daily 19 Dec 12;
Dec. 19, 2012 — Look out the window and you're likely to see the dispersal of seeds -- dandelion tufts in the wind, a squirrel burying an acorn, a robin flying off with a dogwood fruit. You might even have a burr "velcroed" to your sock.
Sarah Sumoski, a recent graduate of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has now published a study of seed dispersal in a less-familiar environment -- the eelgrass beds of Chesapeake Bay. The study -- the first to show that marine animals can disperse eelgrass seeds -- appears as the featured article for the Dec. 19th issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series. It is co-authored by Dr. Robert "JJ" Orth, head of the Seagrass Monitoring and Restoration program at VIMS and Sumoski's major professor.
Eelgrass -- like other seagrasses -- is a flowering plant that reproduces both by sending out rhizomes (like crabgrass) and producing tiny underwater seeds (like the fescues of many lawns). Eelgrass beds play a key ecological role in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal ecosystems but are in decline worldwide due to cloudy waters, warm temperatures, and excess nutrients that encourage the growth of light-stealing algae.
Understanding how seagrass seeds are dispersed is important for guiding efforts to restore seagrass meadows in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal ecosystems, and for informing the models that are used to guide seagrass management plans and restoration efforts.
"Traditional thinking is that eelgrass disperses by abiotic mechanisms such as floating seeds, floating reproductive shoots, or currents pushing seeds along the seafloor," says Sumoski. "Our study shows that eelgrass seeds can also be dispersed through consumption and excretion by fish, terrapins, and birds -- providing a means to bring seeds to isolated areas unlikely to receive seeds via abiotic mechanisms. In fact, we think the distance a seed travels via biotic dispersal may rival or exceed the distances recorded from abiotic mechanisms."
Sumoski and Orth conducted the study through 3 years of painstaking laboratory experiments in which they fed 1,707 eelgrass seeds to animals often found in and around eelgrass beds -- 3 fish species (northern puffers, pinfish, and mud minnows or mummichogs), diamondback terrapins, and a seabird, the lesser scaup. Previous studies have recovered eelgrass seeds from the stomachs of these or similar species, and all 5 have been observed feeding in eelgrass beds, making deliberate or inadvertent ingestion of eelgrass seeds likely.
Sumoski then retrieved seeds -- each smaller than a rice grain -- from the animals' feces, noted their condition, and planted intact seeds in experimental tanks containing sediments and water from the York River near VIMS' riverside campus in Gloucester Point, Virginia.
The results of their experiments showed that the seeds were able to survive passage through the gut of all the animals studied, with excretion and germination rates highest for mummichogs and northern puffers, moderate for pinfish and diamondback terrapins, and lowest for scaup.
They also calculated how far the animals might be able to carry the seeds, by measuring how long it took the seeds to pass through the gut of each species, and multiplying those values by reported swimming or flying speeds for each creature.
"We estimate that the fishes could disperse eelgrass seeds 10s to 100s of meters, while the maximum dispersal distance for terrapins is around 1,500 meters, or about a mile," says Sumoski. "The scaup was the champ, with a maximum dispersal distance of more than 10 miles."
Physical mechanisms have been shown to disperse eelgrass seeds similar distances: 10s of meters for seeds moved along the seafloor by currents, 100s of meters for individual floating seeds, and more than 100 kilometers for intact flowering shoots, which can float on the surface for weeks and contain multiple seeds. Sumoksi points out, however, that "the animals are likely to be more effective dispersal agents, as they prefer to live under the conditions that favor seagrass growth and thus will tend to carry seeds to areas where they'll germinate. Wind and currents can easily disperse seeds into areas unsuitable for seagrass growth."
Sumoski adds that dispersal of seagrass seeds by animals not included in her study -- such as manatees, dugongs, and green turtles -- could carry seeds of seagrass species found in tropical waters for distances greatly exceeding those of abiotic mechanisms.
Overall, she says, "While seeds will suffer mortality through ingestion and digestion, some proportion can be expected to survive, germinate, and grow to adult plants, meaning that dispersion by animals can lead to re-colonization of past eelgrass meadows, or even the colonization of new habitats. That's good news for eelgrass beds and the organisms that rely on them for habitat, nursery grounds, and food."
Scientists Discover an Underwater Pollinator
A first of its kind, this marine plant is pollinated by zooplankton and invertebrates.
Sarah Keartes Hakai Magazine 15 Nov 16;
Birds do it, bees do it, but until recently, no marine critters were thought to do it. Pollination, that is. Tides and currents do a great job of sweeping pollen from marine plant to plant, so scientists thought underwater pollinators were unnecessary. But now, researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico have discovered a species of Caribbean seagrass, Thalassia testudinum, that can be pollinated by zooplankton and bottom-dwelling invertebrates.
Marine biologist Brigitta van Tussenbroek first had her suspicions raised in 2012, when she and her colleagues found some seagrass covered by a diverse group of animals. She suspected the organisms were acting as pollinators, but to be certain she and her team needed to observe the plants in a controlled setting, away from ocean currents.
The researchers developed a system of aquariums that allowed them to the control flow of the water, added seagrass and potential pollinators, and watched for signs of seagrass reproduction.
The team found that even in the complete absence of current, pollen tubes grew on the female flowers, indicating that—thanks to the zooplankton in the tanks—male flowers were able to send their donation to the right destination. More interesting still, in the absence of both current and plankton, the male plants stopped flowering.
“The results are fascinating,” says plankton biologist Richard Kirby, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“When you think about it, why shouldn’t plankton play an important role?” says Kirby. “There is no reason not to expect similarly complex interactions that we observe between land plants and their pollinators. But, hindsight is easy.”
That marine plants can reproduce like their terrestrial counterparts also makes sense with hindsight. After all, much like how whales evolved from small, amphibious carnivores, seagrasses evolved from terrestrial plants. They adapted to a salty, aquatic environment over millions of years, yet much of their existing physiology persisted. Seagrasses have roots and leaves, for example, and a seagrass flower is either a pollen-producing male or pollen-receiving female.
Van Tussenbroek and her team found that plankton would visit both male and female flower parts, further supporting their hypothesis.
In fact, the researchers found that even the mode of interaction between the zooplankton and the seagrass is much like that between terrestrial pollinators and plants.
Plankton is drawn to the seagrass’s nutritious mucilage—a carbohydrate-rich substance that houses pollen, says the team. Mucilage is exceptionally gooey, so as the zooplankton munch away, excess pollen grains stick to their bodies. As the plankton move from seagrass to seagrass, the pollen spreads. The plants get a helping hand, and the plankton get food.
Thalassia testudinum isn’t wholly reliant on the zooplankton, however. The plant can also clone itself, so planktonic pollinators likely serve as a safeguard—a way to give genetic diversity a boost.
But before we can dub plankton the “bees of the seas,” we need to find out how many plant species rely on them. Seagrasses are true ecosystem engineers: they filter water, convert carbon dioxide, and provide critical food and shelter. Learning more about them—and their newfound pollinators—can only help secure a positive future for our oceans.
Full paper
SE Sumoski, RJ Orth. Biotic dispersal in eelgrass Zostera marina. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 2012; 471: 1 DOI: 10.3354/meps10145
