Seagrass restoration trials in Kavaratti Lagoon, Lakshadweep: Growth patterns of transplants and their impact on overgrazing

It is essential to restore degraded seagrass habitats as they are among the major blue carbon ecosystems undergoing degradation at alarming proportions throughout the globe. As our earlier attempts at seagrass transplanting trials ended up in grazing by herbivores, fresh trials in enclosed rafts were initiated which resulted in an 80% survival rate. The results indicated the magnitude of overgrazing on seagrass shoots and the height of transplants after 37 days in the enclosed rafts was 105 mm registering a net height of 71.05±9.1mm, while in the exposed rafts the leaves of the transplants were found grazed and the final mean height was only 13.3 mm registering a net height of shoots far below its initial height. Any initiative to restore seagrass meadows in the degraded areas must be taken up under protected mode or the existing seagrass meadows should be allowed to recover on their own by preventing overgrazing and checking man-made interferences