How important are seahorses

[brandoniscool]

My name is Diana, and I am studying Biology at U of I. I'm a tutor in mr. rutherford's room. With that being said, I don't know much on seahorses and I am very curious as to how do they help their marine environment? For example, if sea horses were removed from an aquatic system, would this affect other organisms around them?

 

[rayjay]

I've never seen any studies done that would indicate anything good or bad that would happen.
The food the seahorses normally would eat may increase in numbers, but only to the point that their is enough of their food available.
The fish that eat seahorses may or may not be able to sustain themselves with other food they may find. Perhaps that would vary with each area seahorses are found in.

 

[JLynn]

I think the biggest impact of seahorses becoming extinct/being removed would be the imbalance of the food web in environments like seagrass beds and mangrove forests, which are already in rather delicate conditions due to other factors (pollution, trawling, etc). It would just be one more stressor on such ecosystems. That said, not a lot is actually known about how important seahorses are to the food web; we don't even know for sure how many there are in the world! Plus, more species, such as the pygmy seahorses which have been found in the Indian Ocean area, are still being found, and extremely little is known about these seahorses.