The seagrass is greener along Florida’s Nature Coast … figuratively, that is.
The seagrass is greener along Florida’s Nature Coast … figuratively, that is. A new study published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series shows that seagrass ecosystems along the northern half of Florida’s Gulf Coast have remained relatively healthy and undisturbed for the last several thousand years.
This is not the case for most other seagrass ecosystems the world over, nearly 30% of which have disappeared since 1879. An estimated 7% of seagrass beds were lost each year between 1990 and 2009. Those that remain are generally not faring well, and the discovery of a healthy refugium is a rare event.
“Nothing is really pristine today, because humans have altered all of Earth’s environments, but this is about as good as it gets,” said Michal Kowalewski, senior author of the study and the Thompson chair of invertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Read More: Florida Museum of Natural History
Seagrasses stabilize sediment, reducing erosion and enhancing the accumulation of nutrient-rich biomatter. They’re so good at doing this that even though seagrass meadows cover only 0.2% of the ocean floor, they’re responsible for 50% of marine carbon burial. (Photo Credit: Ben Jones / Ocean Image Bank)
