Amazon.com description: Product Description: Seagrasses are a common feature of inshore coastal waters of all continents except Antarctica. This book, the first to attempt a comprehensive coverage of seagrasses, will attract a wide audience including botanists, zoologists, geologists, and experts in fisheries and coastal management. There are individual chapters on all aspects of the plants themselves, from questions of taxonomy, reproduction and evolution, through ecology and biogeography, to the physiological aspects of photosynthesis, nutrition and salt balance. The fauna associated with seagrass beds are also dealt with extensively, including meiofauna, large grazers (including dugongs and turtles), and fish. The book examines the role of seagrass beds as nursery grounds for commercially important fish, and addresses the problems of human impact on seagrass communities, the conservation of seagrass beds, and their restoration. The book is written for an international audience largely by Australian authors, since Australia, with more than half of the world's fifty-five seagrass species, has attracted a great deal of seagrass research over the last two decades.