Seagrass ecosystems have been declining, and restorations are conducted in many parts of the world to compensate for habitat loss and restore the ecosystem services seagrasses provide. Assessment of transplantation success requires the monitoring of the level of biodiversity between the donor and transplanted sites. In this study, we assessed a seagrass ecosystem after restoration in terms of the diversity of marine organisms using environmental DNA (eDNA) to compare four sites: (1) bare sand, (2) a natural meadow of Cymodocea serrulata, (3) a natural meadow of Halophila ovalis, and (4) a transplanted seagrass meadow. The results showed the presence of 3 domains, 34 phyla, 59 classes, 92 orders, 155 families, 156 genera, and 121 species. Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were the dominant bacterial phyla. Among eukaryotes, Phragmoplastophyta/Charophyta (epiphytes), Ascomycota (fungi), Cnidaria (jelly fish), and Arthropoda (Crabs and bivalves) were the dominant phyla. Dugong tails and commercial species (sea cucumber, dog conch, and swimming crab) have been observed in both the natural and transplanted meadows. Relative abundance among the four sites was significantly different. There were no differences in species richness and evenness between the four sites and no differences in species richness and evenness between the natural meadows and the transplanted seagrass meadow. It is possible that transplanted seagrass meadow can be successfully restored and established and can provide habitat for fauna and microbes. Additionally, fauna are not limited in their capacity to move between the natural and transplanted habitats. This study provides an assessment of biodiversity of restored seagrass patches and a better understanding of a seagrass ecosystem after restoration. However, to assess seagrass ecosystem services after restoration and the success of restoration actions, long-term monitoring of marine organism diversity and additional assessments are needed.

Our seagrass collection mainly comes from the Southern coastline of Thailand, cover 12 out of 13 species found in Thai waters, there was no H. minor in our collection. Recently, we reported a new record of H. major in Thai waters, and identify key characters to distinguish those overlapping morphological characteristic between H. ovalis and H. major (Tuntiprapas et al., 2015). We have extensive collections of H. ovalis, with a total of 266 samples covered not only in Thai waters but also Johor, Malaysia and Hong Kong, we are also interested in population genetic and ecological adaptations of this very common and high plasticity of this species.

The interrelationship of the minerals calcium (Ca²⁺), magnesium (Mg²⁺) and silicon (Si) in the sediments and in the body walls of four tropical sea cucumber species was explored by modeling the concentrations of these minerals. The elemental concentrations of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ and Si were measured in the body walls and in the ambient sediments occupied by the sea cucumbers Holothuria scabra, H. leucospilota, H. atra and Bohadschia marmorata. The results indicate that the concentrations of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in the body walls of the four sea cucumber species are significantly different from each other, indicating a varying degree of biomineralization across sea cucumber taxa. In contrast, only B. marmorata showed a significant difference in the concentration of Si when compared to the rest of the species tested. Further analysis using linear mixed models revealed that the Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ and Si concentrations in the body walls of the tested sea cucumber species are associated with the sediment concentrations of the same elements. The relatively high concentrations of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in the sediments indicate that these minerals are sufficiently high in sea cucumbers to support their biomineralization. The relationship between the Mg/Ca ratio in the body walls of the sea cucumbers and minerals in the sediments revealed that Si was the only mineral that was not correlated with the Mg/Ca ratio. Predicting the relationship of the elements Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ and Si between the sediments and the body walls of sea cucumbers may be complex due to the various factors that influence the metabolism and biomineralization in sea cucumbers.