Climate change - protecting marine life - the value of seagrass

Seagrass - Mediterranean - Shutterstock

 
Over the past decade increasing attention has been paid to the importance and value of ocean marine plants particularly seagrass meadows which flank every continent except Antarctica. Most of the research focus has been directed to the value of seagrass for biodiversity, healthy fish stocks and commensurately, the fishing industry itself.  The critical value of seagrass extends much further and its loss has a range of other impacts worldwide.

Some facts illustrate the critical value of seagrass -

• although it occupies a mere 0.1 % of the ocean floor, the seagrass beds hold around 10% of buried carbon and this marine plant buries carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests on land.
• this marine plant has evolved into 72 different species with a strong subterranean root system that provides a stabilising effect on coastlines as well as elevating the levels of sediment. This effect is useful for counteracting storm surges and floods by reducing wave energy and reducing water currents.
• with higher rates of carbon dioxide entering the oceans, seagrass has been found to counteract acidic seawater. Carbon dioxide in the ocean creates carbolic acid that dissolves the shells of coral, molluscs and similar organisms.
• meadows of seagrass have been found to create 'Neptune Balls' that are fibrous bundles of plastic items that float in the ocean. Seagrass traps, sorts and sieves microplastics into these bundles each year. Given the sheer scale and magnitude of plastic in the oceans, having a natural method for filtering out this dangerous material is, in fact, a no-brainer solution.

Alas as with so many natural wonders on planet Earth, seagrass itself is under threat and disappearing at a fast rate, around 7% a year by some calculations.