Very high-resolution seismo-acoustics in the study of seagrasses. The case of posidonia oceanica (Mediterranean sea)

• Autores: Claudio Iacono, Eulàlia Gràcia i Mont, Juan José Dañobeitia Canales
• Localización: Instrumentation ViewPoint, ISSN-e 1886-4864, Nº. 8, 2009
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Posidonia oceanica is a coastal Mediterranean seagrass which accumulates in its subsurface large quantities of organic material derived from its roots, rhizomes and leaf sheaths embedded in sandy sediments. These organic deposits accumulate over thousands of years forming the matte, whose high content in organic carbon plays a major role in the global ocean carbon cycle. In this study, very high resolution seismo-acoustic methods were applied to image the subsurface features of a P. oceanica seagrass meadow at Portlligat (Cadaqués, Girona, Spain), in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Our findings yield fresh insights into the settling of the P. oceanica meadow in the study area, and define with unprecedented detail the potential volume occupied by the matte.