Posidonia seagrass meadow

Photo: Osmica Karlovac · CC BY-NC

Posidonia oceanica is the Mediterranean's foundation seagrass species — a slow-growing endemic that forms dense meadows providing nursery habitat for hundreds of invertebrate and fish species. It oxygenates the water column and stabilises sediment, and its dead leaf mats (matte) form hard substrate on which other organisms settle. Brijuni's meadows are in relatively good health, a rarity for the northern Adriatic given the region's historical trawling pressure.