// Sea flora //

The sea flora consists of algae and sea-flowering plants. They represent a very important link in the ecosystem of the sea. They are responsible for producing oxygen and they serve as shelter and food to many animals. Depending on the conditions in the sea (depth, temperature, salinity, quantity of light....) different species of algae and sea-flowering plants develop. The researches about the biological diversity of the sea bed of the Nature Park Telašćica have established 318 species of algae of a total of 658 species that have been recorded in the east Adriatic and 3 species of sea-flowering plants. The most represented ones are the red algae with 199 species, followed by the brown algae with 72 species and the green algae with 47 species. The structure of the flora accumulations depend on the type of surface they develop on. On rocky sea beds in small depths, a whole range of algae can be found, while on sandy and muddy sea beds sea-flowering plants are prevailing. Different species of the Cystoseira and red alga are distinguished, which is a characteristic of the islands on the open-sea of the middle Adriatic and the open-sea area of the Mediterranean Sea. The most interesting alga of this area is the calcareous alga Goniolithon byssoides which is present in the east Mediterranean Sea. In the Adriatic it can be located on the north-west border of the area and it is very rare. The richest habitat of this alga is at the south-eastern cliffs of Dugi otok and the neighbouring stormy islands. In the shallow sea, at the coast in the Nature Park, the most common algae’s to be found are: Padina pavonica, Dictyota dichotoma, Laurentia obtusa, Cystoseira sp., Acetabularia mediterrane and the sea-flowering plants Cymodocea nodosa and Zostera noltii. In the bay more significant are the sea meadows covered with the sea-flowering plants Posidonia oceanica and Cymodocea nodosa