Seagrass canopy height and leaf area in Changuu Island (Unguja Island, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania)

We measured seagrass leaf area and canopy height. We took six biomass cores in random points in the study site Changuu Island. We then measured with a ruler the canopy height (centimeters) as the length of the leaves (from meristem to the tip of the leaf) of each seagrass species in each core. For T. ciliatum, we measured the length of the stem separately and coupled it to the corresponding shoot. Stem and leaf lengths were then summed to obtain canopy height. The length (centimeters) and width (centimeters) of each leaf was measured with a ruler and then multiplied to calculate the leaf area per species (squared centimeters). Special case for T. ciliatum: Some of the datapoints show no data for leaf lenght and width for this species. In these cases, the shoot has been overgrazed and therefore there was no leaf material to measure, and only the stem length was measured.