Our call for volunteers didn’t go unnoticed. After a briefing session at a local coffee shop, a dozen volunteers planted a further 600 mangrove seeds at Grantville. The main aim of this year’s planting is to test whether seeds planted nearer existing mangrove stands have a higher chance of surviving. We also collected wrack, seagrass washed up on nearby beaches, and added that to the sediment surrounding 50 of the young mangroves from last year’s planting to test if the seagrass, a natural source of nitrogen, will improve the mangrove growth. The growth of these 50 ‘test’ plants will be measure over the coming months, and compared to the growth of 50 ‘control’ plants in the same plots where seagrass wasn’t added. Thanks to the volunteers and their determination to get muddy, we managed to get everything accomplished before the tide came in.
As you know, mangroves grow slowly, but we’ll keep you posted on how well these new additions progress.
Those who were involved last year when we planted 400 seeds at Grantville might be interested in their progress. Our aim last year was to test different methods of attaching the seeds to the bamboo stakes for support, the density of planting and the distance offshore and their effects on seed survival. Two of the attachment methods produced better survival, so we’ll be using those methods in future. Planting density does not seem to have any effect, and, although it appears there’s an optimum distance offshore for highest survival, we still need more data to confirm this. Stay tuned for further reports as our monitoring continues.
Western Port Seagrass Partnership 