Assessment of genetic diversity nutritional value and productivity of seagrasses of Chilika lagoon Odisha India

Abstract

Seagrasses are a group of angiosperms inhabiting aquatic marine habitats like newlineshallow seas, sheltered bays, backwaters, lagoons and river estuaries in the tropics, subtropics and temperate regions of the world. Most commonly, seagrasses form dense newlinemeadows composed of one or more species, which serves as ideal habitats for a wide newlinerange of living organisms. More importantly, seagrass meadows are ideal foraging and newlinespawning ground for a variety of fishes, shellfishes and several juvenile marine newlineinvertebrates. Seagrasses serve as nutritive food for dugong, manatee, green sea turtles newlineand waterfowls. Several birds and some large mammals also visit the meadows as newlinepredators. newlineThough the number of species in the world is few, the seagrass meadows are the newlinemost productive shallow marine ecosystems, especially in terms of biodiversity, newlineproductivity, nutrient cycling, food web structure and carbon sequestration. They play a newlinesignificant role in fish production, sediment binding and coastal erosion control. Several newlinespecies of seagrass are economically important and provide a number of goods and newlineservices thereby contributing to the livelihood of the local people of the coasts. The seeds newlineand rhizomes of Enhalus and Cymodocea species are used as food items. At the same newlinetime numbers of seagrass species have local applications as fertilizer, fodder, animal newlinefeed, stuffing material for mattresses, raw materials in paper industry and for packing newlineand transportation of breakable items. A wide range of medicines and phytochemicals newlinehaving anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-cancerous properties are extracted from seagrass newlinespecies. Being rich source of carbohydrates, proteins, lipids and secondary metabolites, newlinesome of the species may serve as potential food and additives for human consumption. newline