The establishment of an eelgrass, Zostera marina, bed was performed using a method of artificial seeding on "Gauze cloth and pebble mats(GP-mats)", off Kushiki, Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, eastern Seto Inland Sea. Gauze cloth sheets were used to allow the artificial seeding. Pebbles were used to increase the stableness of the sandy sediments around the Z. marina plants. The GP-mats were made of three layered gauze sheets fixed to iron quadrates. Three sizes in diameter of pebbles were mixed respectively on each 1m^2 GP-mat. The experiment was started in January 2000 using 45 GP-mats, which were set adjacent to the sediment stabilizer mats(SS-mats) used previously. Plants of Z. marina on GP-mats grew successfully for two years, even under harsh environmental conditions of high wave heights in the winter. Shoot density on the GP-mats was observed to decrease after reached the maximum number(197 shoots/m^2) in the first summer to 8 shoots/m^2 in the 2^<nd> summer, and disappeared (0 shoots/m^2) after the passage of typhoon No.15, Sept. 2001. The GP-mats were effective and useful in germination of seed, growth of seedlings, and survival of adult plants due to the sand accumulation on the mats under usual environmental conditions. However, the usage of GP-mats may be limited in areas prone to the full effects of high waves caused by typhoons.
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