Seagrasses, marine flowering plants, are widely distributed along temperate and tropical coastlines of the world. Seagrasses have key ecological roles in coastal ecosystems and can form extensive meadows supporting high biodiversity. The global species diversity of seagrasses is low (b60 species), but species can have ranges that extend for thousands of kilometers of coastline.

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This brochure summarizes what are seagrasses, their role in the productivity of ecosystems, their importance to humans as well as a collection of fun facts.

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This report was published by the Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) project with the support of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). It provides new assessment tools for coastal management programs and discusses the key science outputs of the project. Science communicators at IAN worked with authors and designers to create nine figures for the 40-page report.

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This is a practical handbook on how to communicate science effectively. The first part is an introduction to the principles of science communication – what effective science communication is, why it is important, and how to do it. The principles in these chapters include how effective science communication can change societal paradigms and make one a better scientist.

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Seagrasses, 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.

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This is a practical handbook on how to communicate science effectively. The first part is an introduction to the principles of science communication-what effective science communication is, why it is important, and how effective science communication can change societal paradigms and make one a better scientist.

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The National Fisheries Conservation Center convened the meeting (chaired by Dr. Don Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science) to bring together modelers, ecologists, fishermen, stock assessment scientists and other analysts to try to produce a more integrated theoretical basis for designing, managing and monitoring marine reserves as part of the fishery management system.

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This newsletter describes the historical distributions of both native and introduced Phragmites. It details the invasion of the introduced type in North America (determined through genetic analysis), and morphological differences between the native and introduced types, as well as some commonly used control methods and their associated problems. Phragmites is thought to be one of the most widespread plants on earth.

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This is the eighth in a series of Pew Center reports examining the potential impacts of climate change on the U.S. environment. It details the likely impacts of climate change over the next century on U.S. coastal and marine ecosystems, including estuaries, coral reefs, and the open ocean. Coordinator: Dr Victor Kennedy … • Temperature changes in coastal and marine ecosystems will influence organism metabolism and alter ecological processes such as productivity and species interactions.

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Measurement of light penetration in relation to seagrass

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