Monitoring of seagrass along southern Andaman coast of Thailand

Seagrass ecosystems provide various important ecosystem services in the marine environment. However, their global distribution has been declining since the 1800s. At the current rate of decline of almost 1.5% per year, almost half the meadows will be lost in the next 100 years. To prevent or minimize their loss, global monitoring programs have been established, such as SeagrassNet. The aim of the program is to introduce a global monitoring protocol and to preserve seagrass ecosystems by increasing scientific knowledge of them. The aim of this study was to gather data obtained by this protocol and to set a baseline for knowledge of the seagrass meadows in marine national parks in Southern Thailand. The data were collected from February 2006 until March 2009, three times a month at three national parks: Haad Chao Mai, Tarutao and Mu Ko Petra. At each site the data were obtained along three transects parallel to the coast with 12 quadrats, in which species coverage and biomass above and below ground were recorded. These data sets can be used in future seagrass health assessments, in observation of the temporal changes of the meadows and as a baseline for restoration efforts.