Seagrass restoration trials in tropical seagrass meadows of Kenya

The degradation of seagrasses is becoming prevalent in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region due to anchor damage, sea urchin herbivory, extreme events such as cyclones and floods anthropogenic factors pollution sediment inflows. Consequently, there have been numerous efforts advance restoration degraded seagrass beds several countries region. In Kenya, experimental were started 2007 response habitat herbivory. Although initial experienced challenges, lessons learned which provided insights into subsequent work using different techniques. this paper, are three types techniques; sod technique, mimic Hessian bag technique. case Thalassodendron ciliatum showed a decline from 20 ± 1.7 shoots sod-1 first weeks 7 4.4 at end period study, while Thalassia hemprichii sods an increase 28 3.4 32 2.7 over same period. For method, expectation was that pilot site would be filled with transplanted species, hemprichii, but findings species including Halodule uninervis, Syringodium isoetifolium, Halophila stipulacea, Cymodocea rotundata, serrulata colonized area. This indicated it not possible restore area its original status, could rehabilitated. costs also assessed well community participation initiatives. These provide for Kenya baseline future work.