Globally marine-terrestrial interfaces are highly impacted due to a range of human pressures. Seagrass habitats exist in the shallow marine waters of this interface, have significant values and are impacted by a range of pressures. Cumulative risk analysis is widely used to identify risk from multiple threats and assist in prioritizing management actions. This study conducted a cumulative risk analysis of seagrass habitat asso...

Halophila johnsonii is an endangered seagrass species that is restricted to the southeast coast of Florida, United States. Its taxonomic status has been called into question, in particular, given the close morphological and genetic similarity of H. johnsonii and the widely distributed and morphologically variable Halophila ovalis , which is largely restricted to the Indo-Pacific region. While a close relationship to H. ovalis...

Susan Lynn Williams (1951–2018) was an exceptional marine ecologist whose research focused broadly on the ecology of benthic nearshore environments dominated by seagrasses, seaweeds, and coral reefs. She took an empirical approach founded in techniques of physiological ecology. Susan was committed to applying her research results to ocean management through outreach to decision-makers and resource managers. Susan’s career incl...

The rate of exchange, or connectivity, among populations effects their ability to recover after disturbance events. However, there is limited information on the extent to which populations are connected or how multiple disturbances affect connectivity, especially in coastal and marine ecosystems. We used network analysis and the outputs of a biophysical model to measure potential functional connectivity and predict the impact...

We investigated phylogeography, demography, and population connectivity of the dugong ( Dugong dugon ) in Australian waters using mitochondrial control region DNA sequences from 177 Australian dugongs and 11 from elsewhere. The dugong is widespread in shallow Indo‐West Pacific waters suitable for growth of its main food, seagrass. We hypothesized that the loss of habitat and creation of a land barrier (the Torres Strait landbr...

This study assessed metabolism, growth, and survival of two seagrass species at three different seawater temperatures (27°C, 30°C, and 33°C) under saturating (400 µmol photons m ‐2 s ‐1 ) and limiting (40 µmol photons m ‐2 s ‐1 ) light over 1 month. Halodule uninervis grown at 33°C was within its physiological optimum temperature range, exhibiting 2.3× higher photosynthetic rates than at 27°C, and increased net shoot carbon (C...

In a study of the widespread Australian endemic seagrass Posidonia australis , allozyme analysis identified a wide range in population genetic structure assessed using the multilocus genotype diversity statistic ( D G ). Values of D G between zero and one were obtained; however, RAPD analysis generally detected higher levels of diversity, where D G values were all greater than 0.5 ( D G = 0.67 – 1). Some populations were alloz...