Monday, August 17, 2020

whales of the plant kingdom

Don't tell anybody, but I'm mainly writing all these features to educate myself - everything else is collateral benefits. So this time round I learned that seagrasses are the whales of the plant kingdom - like the cetaceans, they migrated back into the oceans within the last 100 million years. That's the sort of unexpected connection I can get really excited about. In addition, seagrasses are also very useful in terms of carbon sequestration, coastal protection, and habitat, so at this point you've probably guessed that humanity is doing a great job at destroying them comprehensively and they need saving.

All these issues are covered in my latest feature which is out now:

Save our seagrasses

Current Biology Volume 30, Issue 16, 17 August 2020, Pages R905-R907

FREE access to full text and PDF download



Seagrass is known to stabilise the ground on which it grows, which helps both the sequestration of carbon and the defence of coastlines against erosion. (Photo: © Paul Lavery at Edith Cowan University.)

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