A note on morphometric, shoot density and biomass of Thalassia hemprichii from the South Andaman coast, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India

Morphometric characteristics, shoot density and biomass of Thalassia hemprichii were investigated. Leaf length, width, internode length, rhizome diameter and root length (60.12, 4.43, 5.20, 2.41, 68.04 mm) were measured from a total 100 fresh shoots. Shoot density (591.5 shoots m(-2)) and LAI (0.48 m(2) m(-2)) were found to be variable. Above ground biomass (28.74 g dw m(-2)) was more attributed to leaf thickness than shoot density. Sand dominant stations show a high number of attributes with highest average values. internode length increased where sand percentage was high. Leaf length shows significant difference within stations but not between stations. A strong correlation and least variation was found between node and rhizome diameter.