Seagrass leaves provide suitable substrate onto which numerous small algae and mobile or sessile epifauna may colonize. These additions to seagrass systems may provide food and habitat for associated seagrass fauna (Bologna and Heck 1999). Epifaunal communities typically become more abundant on older seagrass leaves and are lost when old leaves break off of the seagrass shoot. A characteristic Thalassia leaf has a life span of 30 to 60 days (Zieman and Zieman 1989). Epiphytes benefit in seagrass habitats because there is ample room for attachment, seagrasses provide numerous microenvironments, and epiphytes are able to exploit nitrogen and phosphorus compounds that seep from the leaf surface (Hemminga and Durarte 2000).