While generally overlooked, seagrass is one of our strongest allies in the fight against global heating due to its incredible carbon-absorbing abilities. The problem, however, is that the plant is also one of the most threatened organisms in the world. Up to 92 percent of the marine grass has disappeared from the UK’s coast over the last century.
Now, in a bid to resurrect UK’s lost sea meadows, conservationists are planting a million seagrass seeds onto the seabed off the Welsh coast, to create an underwater grassland with an area of 20,000 square meters. Scientists hope it will also help boost fish numbers and support marine wildlife such as seahorses and sea snails.
As a result of long-term coastline development and sea pollution, seagrass has been declining globally at a rate of about 7 percent a year since 1990. Cultivating the “wonder plant” represents an opportunity to reverse that loss and tap into its potential to fight climate change.
The underwater plant is capable of absorbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere at a rate of up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, and it accounts for 10 percent of annual ocean carbon storage globally, despite only making up 0.2 percent of the seafloor. Its restoration provides a key solution for helping mitigate climate change.
