| After blade shedding in the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, leaf sheaths remain attached to the rhizome and can persist for several decades within a ''matte'' They show, according to their insertion rank, cyclical variations in parameters such as thickness and tissue structure. These cycles are always annual, and may be influenced by environmental parameters such as light, temperature or water movement. The study of cyclic changes in Posidonia oceanica sheaths is thus a technique that can be used to investigate past changes in the near-shore environment. By analogy with dendrochronology, this study is termed lepidochronology. A number of applications of lepidochronological analysis have already been successfully tested : (i) Estimation of the growth rate and... |
