Underwater seagrass meadows are an essential and threatened life-support ecosystem, for wildlife and for us. Providing food and shelter to a huge variety of marine life in shallow waters, they produce oxygen and store 18% of the world’s carbon. The lush meadows also improve water quality and act as a natural coastal defence system.
Here are five key facts to know about these superpowered underwater ecosystems:
1. Pollution, climate change, dredging and unregulated fishing have devastated a third of meadows worldwide and 92% of our former range, accelerating the climate crisis and impacting the planet’s health.
2. Roots are anchored in the seabed, protecting the coastline from erosion and calming storm surges.
3. In the UK, Zostera marina (always underwater) and Zostera noltii (in the intertidal zone) grow in shallow waters, naturally filtering pathogens, bacteria and pollution.
4. Seagrasses are the only flowering plants adapted to live in the sea.
5. We are still discovering seagrass meadows. The 2023 Great Seagrass Survey found 185 new hectares. Visit the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) for ways to help.
