Overall, coastal habitat restoration greatly increases animal numbers and diversity. But not all projects deliver the goods and we need to find out why.
Seagrass meadows are a hugely important store of blue carbon - and so is the rest of the ocean sea floor.
Philip Schubert/Shutterstock
Blue carbon is stored in mangroves, seagrass and sediments. Discussions at the UN Ocean Decade conference reiterate the importance of preserving existing sea floor habitats, before it’s too late.
Seagrass meadows are an important part of the UK’s marine environment.
Benjamin Jones/Project Seagrass
China’s signature foreign policy is controversial for lots of reasons. But the environmental damage potentially wrought by the project has received scant attention.
Eelgrasses covered with small snails, which keep the leaves clean by feeding on algae that live on them.
Jonathan Lefcheck
Healthy seagrasses form underwater meadows teeming with fish and shellfish. A successful large-scale restoration project in Virginia could become a model for reseeding damaged seagrass beds worldwide.
Seagrass may look unassuming, but healthy oceans depend on the huge meadows that grow in temperate and tropical waters.
A pair of blacktip reef shark neonates (Carcharhinus melanopterus) gently cruise among the roots in the mangrove forest of Surin Archipelago during high tide in Mu Koh Surin national park, Thailand.
Shin Arunrugstichai
The sediments that accumulate beneath seagrass meadows can act as secure vaults for shipwrecks and other precious artefacts, by stopping water and oxygen from damaging the delicate timbers.
Green sea turtle eating seagrass off Lizard Island.
Abbi Scott
New research highlights the role of sea turtles and dugong in the dispersal of seeds and maintenance of seagrass meadows, an important marine habitat and the primary food source for both animals.
Fishing ships in Lauwersoog, The Netherlands.
Rudmer Zwerver/Shutterstock