Keeping you up to date with Project Seagrass news and views with a mixture of field notes and commentary on seagrass and marine conservation topics.
Seagrass meadows provide a range of environmental, economic, and social benefits to people and planet. They provide habitat, food, and shelter to thousands of species of fish, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles, and birds. Through their diverse use as fishing grounds, they support the creation of jobs and provide access to food sources
Researchers predict that climate change will drive a substantial redistribution of brown seaweeds and seagrasses at the global scale. The projected changes are alarming due to the fundamental role of seaweeds and seagrasses in coastal ecosystems, and provide evidence of the pervasive impacts of climate change on marine life. In
Restoration Forth aims to restore seagrass meadows and native oysters into the Firth of Forth, to create a healthier coastline for people and nature. Find out more about the project here. Orkney seagrass trip Next month the seagrass team will be departing for their annual seed collection trip in Orkney. Following
Using a novel genetic clock, a team of researchers from Kiel, London, Oldenburg, and Davis, California, has determined the age of a large marine plant clone for the first time. This seagrass clone from the Baltic Sea dates back to the migration period 1,400 years ago. The newly developed clock
This Pride Month we’re celebrating our work with Pride Cymru. Thanks to support from Catalyst Cymru, Pride Cymru volunteers supported fieldwork to plant seagrass seeds as part of our programme of restoration work in North Wales. The planting took place earlier this year in Hafan y Môr, Pwllheli. An introduction
Between the 17th and 21st June 2024, over 500 scientists, conservation professionals, and managers will converge in Naples, Italy for the 15th International Seagrass Biology Workshop (ISBW15). It will be two years since the last meeting in Annapolis, USA. The theme of ISBW15 is “Seagrasses in the Anthropocene”, centred around
The theme of the 2024 World Ocean Day is catalyzing action for our ocean and climate. This recognises the fact that the health of the marine environment, including our globally declining seagrass meadows, requires significantly stronger local, national, and international action from both government and corporate leaders. In this article
This year’s World Environment Day campaign focuses on land restoration, under the slogan “Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration.” Loss and degradation of coastal marine ecosystems, compromise the delivery of important ecosystem services to human society. Yet turning the tide on these losses and working towards a net gain
Read our Project Leads’ fieldwork notes from May: Solent Fieldwork (Anouska Mendzil, Solent Lead) Solent fieldwork update: Day 1 Myself and Manning arrived to the Isle of Wight around 14:00 and met Becky. We had an afternoon of preparation including labelling pins and mini-buoys, sorting kit, sorting data forms and
Thanks to the support of local volunteers and landowners Stena Line, 50,000 seagrass seeds were planted last month at sites near Holyhead, covering an area of 150 m2. The planting followed on from a successful stakeholder engagement session held at Holyhead Sailing Club in March 2024, which was attended by
In this blog, our Chief Conservation Officer, Dr Benjamin Jones, shares the thinking behind the decision to refresh the Project Seagrass logo and wider brand identity, and explains why visibility matters so much for seagrass conservation. Honouring our roots, looking to the future Back in 2013, we founded Project Seagrass
New research finds that seagrass meadows support fish that can be more valuable for human nutrition than fish found on coral reefs Seagrass meadows play a majorly overlooked role in providing nutrition for coastal communities, a new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability has uncovered. The study, led by
Project Seagrass CEO and Co-Founder, Dr Leanne Cullen-Unsworth reflects on London Climate Action Week: I left London Climate Action Week inspired, challenged, and, at times, deeply concerned. Over the course of the week I joined conversations spanning nature finance, climate resilience, biodiversity, restoration, and global leadership. The speakers were exceptional.
Project Seagrass calls for urgent action from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Natural Resources Wales as a major sewage leak in Afon Cynffig Kenfig River continues to have a devastating impact on local wildlife, conservation efforts, and communities, weeks after the incident was initially identified. Afon Cynffig Kenfig River borders
July marks the launch of SeagrassTools, a single unified suite for seagrass science, conservation, and management which will enable users to collect, download, analyse, and act on seagrass data more effectively than ever before. The new digital suite, which integrates citizen science, ecological data, restoration experiments, and spatial analytics, will support evidence-based decision-making
Field discovery reveals a healthy and apparently expanding seagrass meadow in one of the UK’s most challenging estuarine environments Marine conservation organisation Project Seagrass has found a previously undocumented intertidal seagrass meadow in Cardiff, within the Severn Estuary. The newly discovered meadow, which was found by Project Seagrass’ Chief Conservation Officer Dr Benjamin Jones, does
