Why Seagrass ?
Humble seagrass beds contain 18% of the world’s oceanic carbon and can absorb CO2 35 times as fast as tropical forests. Help us tell world leaders it’s time to take seagrasses seriously.
ecosystems like seagrass meadows play a huge role in fighting climate chaos. We call on national governments to recognise the critical importance of our ocean and blue carbon in the fight against the climate emergency.
Seagrasses are marine flowering plants that are found in shallow waters in many parts of the world, from the tropics to the Arctic circle. They form extensive underwater meadows, creating complex, highly productive and biologically rich habitats.
Because of this, seagrasses are considered important ecosystem engineers that provide diverse services to nature and mankind. They stabilise sediments in coastal habitats and help protect shorelines from damaging storm and hurricane winds, waves, and floods by dissipating wave energy.
Moreover, seagrasses support biodiversity providing habitat and refugia to many marine organisms, particularly in their juvenile stages. These unique marine plants also act as carbon sinks, growing – and therefore absorbing large amounts of atmospheric CO2 in one of the most efficient ways possible observed in nature.
In fact, seagrasses are up to 15x faster than tropical rainforests at storing greenhouse gas; and even though they only occupy 0.2% of the seafloor, seagrasses are responsible for 10% of the greenhouse gas buried in the ocean.
Healthy oceans and marine life rely on seagrass.
Seagrass = Habitat, Food and FISH!
Life
- With vs Without -
Seagrass
No breeding ground, fish & shellfish dependent on seagrass disappear
Breeding ground for fish and shellfish
More productive fisheries
Stops seabed & sand erosion during storms & tides
Traps sediment flowing from rivers and incorporates it into habitat
Less productive fisheries
Dugongs & turtles feed on seagrass meadows
With less food, dugongs & turtles are under more pressure & may starve
Coastal sand & seabeds are less stable
Additional sediment flows to Great Barrier Reef, negatively impacting or killing corals
Produces oxygen from carbon dioxide
Less absorption of carbon dioxide contributes to impacts of climate change
Shelters fish and shellfish from predators
Fish & shellfish have less suitable nursery habitats to shelter from predators
Know More...
Seagrasses are extremely productive, they grow very fast and fix a lot of carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis, the same way that land plants do. Because of these characteristics, seagrasses and their habitats, are considered blue carbon ecosystems.
What is Blue Carbon?
Blue refers to the marine environment, which refers to everything in the deep ocean, through to the land and areas that are influenced by the salty water of the sea, and the soils and sediments below them.
The carbon aspect refers to the carbon contained in the bodies of marine organisms, ranging from tiny microscopic phytoplankton through to the largest creatures on the planet such as whales, and everything in between. This includes the biomass in living organisms, and also those that have died and are incorporated into the seabed.
