Propagation of Seagrass ( Thlassia hemprichii ) in Artificial Seawater

Propagation of Seagrass ( Thlassia hemprichii  ) in Artificial Seawater

Introduction

The samples were taken at Teluk Pelanduk and Teluk Keamang, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. Each group have chosen one species of seagrass for their group. Our group species is Thlassia hemprichii The samples then were taken to laboratory with their originate substrate for culture.

Materials

Samples (nama species), aquarium, basket, white cloth, tooth pick, air stone and filtered seawater

Methodology

1.      Fill a aquarium with filtered seawater.

2.      A white cloth been placed on the bottom of the basket, then placed the substrate on the white cloth.

3.      Thlassia hemprichii were planted in the basket with tooth pick is placed on each node of the samples and air stones are fixed to maintain circulation in the aquarium.

4.      Aquarium is placed near the window for sunlight.

5.      Samples were observed weekly for their growth.

Trip to Teluk Kemang and KOMASS

Seagrass is  a marine angiosperm which belonging to four plant families which is Posidoniacea, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae. The function of seagrass to surrounding is, act as a food sources for fish and humans, as  a nest for a  fish to lay their eggs, keep the water clean, gives oxygen to surrounding and many more. Not only seagrass attached on the soil or mud, they also attached on the rope, rock an dother shell of invertebrate organisms. There is a big differences between seagrass and seaweed. The differences is in the following table :

Seagrass	Seaweed
Prostrate stem or extensive rhizomes	Prostrate axis or stolon, rarely extensive
Buried in the substrate	Above the substrate
Stem bearing leaves	Rachis bearing thallus
Leaves generally green	Thallus can be red, brown and green
Produce flowers, fruits and seeds	Produce sporangium and spores

In Malaysia, seagrass can be found in many places especially in Teluk Kemang, Merambong shoal and other places . Seagrass culture already exist a few years ago. Some species is easy to culture which doesn’t need frequent checking on them and some species is hard to culture which need to check it frequently to make sure it growth in healthy. There is a technique to culture these aquatic plants.

Today we’re going  to the place which had high diversity of seagrasses which is Teluk Kemang to  collected  some  samples to culture for each group. The instruction is  each group must collect different type of seagrass to culture in the laboratory. After we arrive , we being giving a briefing about our activities today.

 There are many types of species of seagrass that we found ar Teluk Kemang which is Halodule sp. , Halophila ovalis, Halophila becarii, Halophila spinulosa, Thalassia hemprecii, Gracilaria sp. , Sargassum sp. , Padina minor, Caulerpa racemosa, Cymodocea rotundata, Cymodocea serrulata and many more seagrass species in Teluk Kemang.

Besides collecting samples, we also must observe the ecology or diversity of the seagrass in that place. During our activities, our group had found some crabs and fish species in seagrasses area. This had approve that, the diversity of seagrass not only give the benefits to the plant itself also give other organisms benefit  for their survivor. 

                                  Picture 1 : The collecting sample area in Teluk Kemang

Picture 2 : One of our member group collecting the seagrass sample

 Picture 3 : Species that we selected for culture ( Thlassia hempricii)

Picture 4 : Putting some seagrass into aquarium tank.

Picture 5 : The pufferfish that had being found among seagrass (Line black and yellow)

After we’re done collecting samples in Teluk Kemang, our next destination is to KOMASS. In this place, we being asked to determine the domain species of aquatic plants that we found in that area. The domain species is Sargassum sp.

What we learn from our trip is we manage to observe the abundance of variety of seagrass and seaweed ; also we  observe the life form of seaweeds at the different region.For an example, some red seaweed like Gracillaria sp.  attached to other aquatic plant or  on the rock . Besides that, we also learn how to culture the seagrass in aquarium by determine the number of nodes for each weeks.