Seagrass diversity and structure along the coastal area in Paligue, Hagonoy Davao del Sur,

The seagrass is important for a variety of ecological functions. The study site has no previous assessment on seagrass. The study was employed through a purposive sampling along intertidal coastline of Paligue, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur, Philippines. A total of ten transects (100 meter length each) were installed with an interval of at least 50 meters apart. Each transect consisted of 20 (1 m x 1 m) quadrats. The sampling effort was highly adequate as revealed in species accumulation plot. Seven (7) species of seagrasses were identified as part of inventory. Diversity indices of species richness, abundance, dominance, evenness, Shannon diversity and percent cover of seagrass were determined. The spatial structure showed three major groupings at 60% Bray-Curtis similarity. The three groups were displayed in the cluster dendrogram and plotted in the non-metric multidimensional scaling. The groupings were influenced by dominant species of seagrass. The study is the first attempt to assess and charaterize the spatial structure which may be important in the coastal management of seagrass.