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. The mechanisms which effect stabilization are not adequately understood. Seagrasses occur in close proximity to land and receive the brunt of diverse forms of coastal pollution but the effects of these contaminants and their transfer and accumulation mechanisms within the ecosystem remain obscure. The comprehensive evaluation. Interdisciplinary and international research projects on seagrass ecosystems require directly comparable methods that can be applied equally well in the tropics as well as in higher latitudes.