Protecting Seagrass Will Help Save Our Oceans
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By United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
About 0.1 per cent of the ocean’s floor is covered in lanky green flowering plants known as seagrasses.
Their often-sprawling meadows purify ocean water, shelter fish and provide food for thousands of marine species. But seagrass habitats have been in decline since 1930, with 7 per cent of them disappearing each year, according to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) research.
Along with being a haven for marine life, seagrass sediment is one of the planet’s most efficient carbon stores and prevents it from becoming a planet-warming greenhouse gas.
Now, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, a one-time coordinator of a European Union-UNEP project, have discovered how seagrasses store carbon.
READ more at https://www.ecomagazine.com/news/coasts/how-protecting-seagrasses-can-help-save-our-ocean
