Assessment of Cyclone Lehar’s impact on seagrass meadows in Ross and Smith Islands, North Andaman

• Main Authors: V. Sachithanandam, T. Mageswaran, R. Sridhar, R. Purvaja, R. Ramesh
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Smith Island; Smith Islands
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11069-014-1040-8

Cyclonic storms are large-scale disturbances which cause extensive damage in coastal ecosystems. On 25 November 2013, Cyclone Lehar made a significant impact on the coastal areas of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. We observed the pre- and post-Lehar cyclonic effects on the seagrass meadows at Ross and Smith Island, North Andaman. The study indicates that the seagrass meadows are composed of Halodule uninervis, Halophila ovalis, Halodule pinnifolia and Thalassia hemperichii species. Seagrass beds of approximately 1.96 ha (approx. 63 %) were destroyed in the cyclone. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Cyclonic storms, Cyclone Lehar, Seagrass beds, Andaman and Nicobar Island