Mounting loss of seagrass in the world’s oceans, vital for the survival of endangered marine life, commercial fisheries and the fight against climate change, reveals a major crisis in coastal ecosystems, a report said.
A global study of seagrass, which can absorb large amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide, found that 29 percent of the world’s known seagrass had disappeared since 1879 and the losses were accelerating.
Seagrasses are flowering plants found in shallow waters. They were vanishing at the rate of about 110km² a year since 1980, said the study to be published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study by Australian and American scientists found seagrass meadows were “among the most threatened ecosystems on earth” because of population growth, development, climate change and ecological degradation.
It said there were only about 177,000km² left globally.
“Seagrass meadows are negatively affected by impacts accruing from the billion or more people who live within 50km of them,” the report said.
The study said the loss of seagrass was comparable to losses in coral reefs, tropical rainforests and mangroves.
“Seagrasses are sentinels of change” and the loss of seagrass was an indicator of a deteriorating global marine ecosystem. “Mounting seagrass loss reveals a major global environmental crisis in coastal ecosystems,” it said.
It is estimated that 70 percent of all marine life in the ocean is directly dependent upon seagrass, according to US-based Seagrass Recovery.
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants that can live entirely in water. They are most closely related to lilies and are very different to seaweeds, which are algae.
Seagrass meadows provide important ecosystem services, said the study, citing an estimated US$1.9 trillion a year in nutrient cycling, enhancement of coral reef fish productivity, habitats for thousands of fish, bird and invertebrate species and a major food source for endangered dugong and turtles.
Seagrass beds are believed to rival rice paddies in their photosynthetic productivity or the ability to extract greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and convert it into oxygen and stored carbon matter.
One acre (0.4 hectares) of seagrass can lock away nearly 8 tonnes of carbon per year, which equals the carbon dioxide emissions from a car traveling more than 5,600km, Seagrass Recovery said.
The study said more than 51,000km² of grass had been lost in the past 127 years, with the largest losses (35 percent) occurring after 1980.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
RSS