ILMU TUMBUHAN AIR

A ZAHRIAH NURHIDAYAH
L21116512

Seagrass? marine flowering plants, have a long evolutionary

history but are now challenged with rapid
environmental changes as a result of coastal
human population pressures. Seagrasses provide
key ecological services, including organic carbon production and export, nutrient cycling, sediment
stabilization, enhanced biodiversity, and trophic transfers to adjacent habitats in tropical and
temperate regions. They also serve as coastal canaries, global biological sentinels of increasing
anthropogenic influences in coastal ecosystems, with large-scale losses reported worldwide. Multiple
stressors,including sediment and nutrient runoff, physical disturbance, invasive species, disease,
commercial fishing practices, aquaculture, overgrazing, algal blooms, and global warming, cause
seagrass declines at scales of square meters to hundreds of square kilometers. Reported seagrass
losses have led to increased awareness of the need for seagrass protection, monitoring,
management, and restoration. However, seagrass science, which has rapidly grown, is disconnected
from public awareness of seagrasses, which has lagged behind awareness of other coastal
ecosystems (Robert, 2006).

Seagrasses are monocotyledonous vascu-lar flowering plants that live in coastal and estua-rine areas
of the world. They are unique in that they are: 1) usually totally submerged in the wa-ter, 2) they
possess a root system with stems bur-ied within a soft substrate, 3) they have vegetative and sexual
reproduction, and, 4) have flowers fertilized by water-borne pollen. Seagrasses are not truly grasses.
They be-long to three families of monocotyledonous plants, but are called seagrasses since they
usually form extensive underwater meadows, which re-semble fields of terrestrial grasses
(Milchakova, 2003).

Seagrass ecosystem is defined as a unit of biological organization comprised of interacting biotic and
abiotic components. The structural components are shelter and food and feeding pathways and
biodiversity. Functional components include the rate of nutrient cycling, the rate of energy flow, and
biological regulation. Healthy intact seagrass ecosystems provide services since they relate to the
health, stability and well-being of the environment in which they live, but also to that of human
populations (Milchakova, 2003).

Biodiversity in seagrass meadows is greater than in adjacent unvegetated areas, and faunal densities
are orders of magnitude higher inside the meadows (Hemminga and Duarte 2000). They also serve
as a nursery ground, often to juvenile stages of conomically important species of finfish and shellfish,
although the species vary by region and climate (Robert, 2006).

allows better assessment of larger-scale trends than do other comparable coastal habitats, such as
man-grove, corals, or salt marsh plants, which are limited to only one of these broad geographic
regions. Seagrasses also live in shallow, protected coastal waters, directly in the path of water-shed
nutrient and sediment inputs, and are therefore highly
susceptible to these inputs (figure 4), unlike mangrove forests (which are largely unaffected by water
quality) or coral reefs (Robert, 2006).
inspired of the high productivity of seagrass there seem to be few organisms which actually consume
them. the grazers of seagrass are mainly parrot fishes, surgeon fish, gren turtle and sineria among
vetebrates and sea urchin among avertebrates.though seagrass species are not direcly involved in the
food chain of fishes of commercial importent, that high rate of oxygen production will keep the atoll
autotrophic and meet the oxygen demand by coral as well as other fauna (Kaladharan, 1989).

Ekosistem padang lamun memiliki fungsi dan peran penting bagi kehidupan dan perkembangan
makhluk hidup di perairan laut dangkal antara lain: sebagai produser primer, tempat asuhan dan
mencari makanan bagi biota laut, penangkap sedimen, dan pendaur zat hara (Azkab, 1988). Salah
satu penyebab kerusakan dan kematian lamun adalah oleh kegiatan antropogenik seperti
pembuangan sampah ke laut (Short & Wyllie-Echeverria 1996). Sampah laut adalah setiap buangan
manusia yang berbentuk benda padat (keadaan benda , dengan volume dan bentuk yang tetap) atau
materi yang masuk ke dalam lingkungan air laut baik secara langsung maupun secara tidak langsung
(Engler, 2012). Sampah pada dasarnya merupakan sesuatu yang terbuang atau dibuang dari sumber
hasil aktifitas makhluk hidup dan tidak mempunyai nilai ekonomi, akan tetapi ada beberapa jenis
sampah yang dapat di daur ulang sehingga memiliki nilai ekonomi. Sampah laut juga dapat berupa
sisa dari tumbuhan dan hewan yang telah mati pada lingkungan laut. Sampah laut dapat dibedakan
berdasarkan sifatnya yaitu sampah organik dan sampah anorganik. Sampah organik dapat diurai oleh
mikroorganisme 2 sedangkan sampah anorganik sulit atau bahkan tidak dapat diurai oleh
mikroorganisme.Pembuangan sampah organik ke laut mengakibatkan penurunan kadar oksigen
terlarut bagi lamun dan biota yang berasosiasi (Pariwono, 1996). Sedangkan pembuangan sampah
anorganik menimbulkan dampak terhadap tumbuhan lamun seperti mengakibatkan tertutupnya
lamun oleh sampah yang akanmengurangi intensitas cahaya yang diterima lamun

untuk berfotosintesis(Amri et al, 2010)

Ekosistem padang lamun memiliki peranan penting bagi kehidupan dan perkembangan makhluk
hidup di perairan laut dangkal (Azkab, 1988) antara lain:

a.Sebagai produser primer

Lamun memiliki tingkat produktifitas primer tertinggi bila dibandingkan dengan ekosistem lainnya
yang ada di laut dangkal seperti ekosistem terumbu karang.

b.Habitat biota

Lamun memberikan tempat perlindungan dan tempat menempel berbagai hewan. Di samping itu
padang lamun dapat juga sebagai daerah asuhan, mencari makan bagi ikan herbivora dan ikan-ikan
karang.

c.Penangkap sedimen.

Daun lamun yang lebat akan memperlambat air yang disebabkan oleh arus dan ombak, sehingga
perairan sekitarnya menjadi tenang. Di samping itu, rimpang dan akar lamun dapat mengikat
sedimen, sehingga dapat menguatkan dan menstabilkan dasar, dan permukaan perairan laut.
Sehingga padang lamun berfungsi sebagai penangkap sedimen dan juga dapat mencegah erosi.

d. Pendaur zat hara

Lamun memegang peranan penting dalam pendauran berbagai zat hara, khususnya zat-zat hara yang
dibutuhkan oleh alga epifit.
 DAFTAR PUSAKA

APHA, (1998), Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste Water, 20th Edition,
American Public Health Association. Azkab, M.H. 2009. Lamun (seagrass): Pedoman
inventarisasi lamun. Pusat Penelitian Oseanografi, Jakarta: 21 hal

Kaladharan, dkk. 1989. Indian journal of marine sciences. Primary production of seagrass Cymodocea
semlata and its contribution to productivity of Amini atoll,Lakshadweep Islands. Vol
18. Hal 215-216

Khairul Amri et al, 2010. Dampak Aktifitas Antropogenik terhadap Kualitas Perairan Habitat
diKepulauan Spermonde Sulawesi Selatan

Milchakova, dkk. 2003. Marine Ecological Journal. SEAGRASS ECOSYSTEMS. Vol III

ROBERT J. ORT, dkk. 2006. A Global Crisis for Seagrass. BioScience. Vol 56. No 12