Seagrasses in the Indian Ocean Region with Special Reference to Urbanization

Seagrass beds are considered as breeding and feeding grounds for several species of shellfishes, finfishes and other fauna. The decline of seagrass meadows has been recorded all around the world, particularly in tropical areas, which have a high diversity of seagrass species. Increasing urbanization, coastal pollution, industrial development, port development, boat traffic and unsustainable tourism development are some of the manmade activities that damage the seagrass beds of the Indian Ocean region. In addition to this, increasing natural disasters due to climate change such as cyclones, floods and sea-level rise are causing negative impacts on the natural seagrass meadows in the Indian Ocean region. Further, the increase in acidity and temperature in the ocean directly affect the carbon buried in the sediments of seagrass meadows. Such adverse effects of manmade activities and climate change occur in urban coastal areas of the Indian Ocean including the east coast of Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Most of the countries in the Indian Ocean region are categorized as developing and underdeveloped countries and so, their coastal cities and towns have the poor infrastructure for sewage treatment and weak regulations on environmental monitoring and impact assessment of seagrass beds. There are no previous publications that collectively discuss the urban settings of seagrass meadows in different countries in the Indian Ocean region with special reference to climate change. Hence this chapter is compiling the information given by includes authors from different countries to discuss the impacts of urban development with reference to seagrasses.