Seagrass meadows are an important part of the UK’s marine environment.
Benjamin Jones/Project Seagrass
Seagrasses need light to remain resilient to marine heatwaves – water pollution disrupts that balance.
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As the number of protected areas continues to grow, fisher households in Indonesia are still among the poorest of the poor.
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One meadow made enough sand to create a new island in 18 years.
A saltier Red Sea could threaten its marine life.
Dudarev Mikhail/Shutterstock
Jordan is planning a major desalination plant on the Gulf of Aqaba – but will it damage nearby marine ecosystems?
Flamingos feeding in salt marsh on an estuary in South Africa’s Western Cape province.
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By adapting and applying existing policies, South Africa can protect and restore its critical ‘blue carbon’ sinks.
The estuarine pipefish is not easy to find - it camouflages itself amid seagrass.
Louw Claassens
Environmental DNA like skin cells, blood and faeces can be extracted from water, soil, ice or air to provide a good snapshot of an ecosystem.
Basri Marzuki/Antara
As the world’s largest archipelagic state, Indonesia has great potential to earn carbon credits to protect its endangered mangroves and seagrass – which now store around 17% of global “blue carbon”.
University of Sunshine Coast/AAP
Floodwater carries dense clouds of sediment, choking the lush seagrass meadows on which these gentle grazers rely.
The round goby is an invasive fish that has become established in the St. Lawrence River over the past two decades, following its introduction into the Great Lakes.
(Cristina Charette)
Wetlands can help limit the spread of the voracious round goby, an invasive species that has infiltrated the Great Lakes and has become widespread in the St. Lawrence River.
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‘Blue carbon’ habitats can store a lot of carbon – but not reliably enough to offset emissions.
Seagrasses form dense meadows in shallow seas worldwide.
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Much of the world’s seagrass is highly threatened through human actions such as coastal degradation, as well as impacts of climate change.
Rachel Austin
A single seagrass plant in Shark Bay is around 4,500 years old, covers 200 square kilometres of seabed, and thrives in harsh conditions.
Fransesco Ungaro/Unsplash
Work is still needed to collect more data on the carbon capture capacity of the country’s rich coastal ecosystems.
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The indirect losses from one heatwave in Western Australia caused A$4.14 billion per year worth of damage.
A healthy seagrass meadow outside of Porthdinllaen harbour, North Wales.
Richard Unsworth
Seagrass meadows are a powerful ally in the effort to slow climate change and reverse wildlife losses.
Daniel Mariuz/AAP
Humanity is destroying Earth’s ability to support complex life. But coming to grips with the magnitude of the problem is hard, even for experts.
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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.
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Marine wildlife rarely remain in one habitat. Most species rely on a healthy network of ecosystems to raise their young and catch their food.
Seagrasses support a wide variety of life.
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Between 1986 and 2016, Kenya lost about 21 of its seagrasses.