Abstract:
Seagrass transplantation has long been conducted to mitigate the global loss of
seagrass meadows. However, most of the transplantation methods described by
previous researchers for restoration or rehabilitation are not applicable in large scale
restoration projects due to labour and cost constraints. Furthermore, most of the
described methods focused mainly on temperate species. This study was done in order
to test the applicability of a new transplantation method using shell as anchoring
device on the tropical species, Halodule pinifolia. Planting units consisting of three
continuous shoots on a rhizome anchored to one oyster or scallop shell were placed on
the sediment at transplanting site. Four transplanting plots were prepared, each with
15 oyster shell planting units and 15 scallop shell planting units. Transplantation was
conducted at Setiu Wetlands in July 2010 until October 2010. Transplants were
considered established after 2-3 months when they were morphologically (shoot
height) and physically (aboveground biomass) similar to the natural populations, but
the survival obtained were low.