Hey Folks!
Today I'm going to briefly talk about the importance of Seagrass beds.

Sea grass beds are home to many aquatic organisms. The tall leaves create a canopy and provide protection and shelter for small marine life.The leaves help small animals such as juvenile and small adult fish as well as many echinoderms, and molluscs which are starfish, clams, sea urchins etc. escape from larger predators. The dense network of roots also help these organisms against the strong currents.
Seagrass beds are also a very important feeding grounds for many aquatic life and they feed directly and indirectly on the leaves of the beds. Many organisms feed straight from the leaves while bigger organisms feed on small organisms that live in the seagrass areas. Detritus from the decomposition of the dead seagrass plants provides food for many seabed ridden creatures such as crabs, worms, and starfish just to name a few.
Seagrass beds also help to maintain a high water quality. They filter out nutrients from run-off before it can spread to other parts of the sea. Due to the tall flat leaves, they help to trap fine sediments that are suspended in the water, which increases the water clarity. If the seagrass area is destroyed this would reduce the clarity within the water as the sediments would be easily stirred up by wave action, which in turn would affect the animal behaviour and therefore the organisms would migrate out of the area.
Apart from the ecosystem support previously mentioned, seagrass beds provide protection for the coast. Areas that lack seagrass communities are proned to intense wave action from currents and storms. This in turn would lead to violent waves crashing onto the coastline resulting in coastal erosion. Just like terrestrial grass species, which prevent soil erosion, seagrass beds do the same and help to stabilize the sea floor due to its extensive root network. This helps to reduce the force of the currents along the bottom and to spread the waves resulting in a weaker force of the waves onto the coast, protecting and reducing the chances of coastal erosion.