The evidence, although scattered, is sufficient to emphasize the timeliness of the need to document and understand the role of seagrass ecosystems before the pressures of an overpopulated world's technological expansion unwittingly destroy the living marine resource of the seagrass meadows. Therefore the interrelationships between plants and animals are not apparent. Relationships between food and feeding habits in a seagrass community remain largely unknown, yet a knowledge of these relationships is necessary for even a preliminary understanding of these communities. The impact of natural catastrophes, such as the wasting disease of Zostera , is without parallel in the oceans. Little is known about the cause and effect relationships in these systems or what practical measures may be applied to minimize these catastrophes.
Preliminary experiments show great promise for recolonization, transplantation, and culture.
Productivity measurements of seagrasses show them to be among the highest in the world. Adequate techniques are not available to assess these rates on a regional or global scale and the mechanisms that sustain this high productivity remain unknown. The global distribution of seagrasses is not yet known, measured either by occurrence or abundance. Seagrasses stabilize coastal sediments and shorelines. This is more than a passive property of the plants, since artificial counterparts have not been effective.