Seagrass

Researching Corals in Bodega Bay?

What do you picture when you think of the California coast? Perhaps it’s the redwood-covered bluffs that plummet down to crashing waves, or the forests of kelp swaying along with the current. But the one thing that might not have come to mind has a surprising presence at UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML): corals.

In the Seagrass Meadows

Invisible in the clear afternoon sky, the moon tugged the tidal channel’s brackish waters towards the Pacific Ocean. It drew them out slowly, languidly, the water’s surface eddying and rippling in the sunlight.

Liyu Mekonnen Receives the 2024 Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award

The Coastal and Marine Science Institute is pleased to announce the 2024 recipient of the Dr. Susan Lynn Williams Memorial Graduate Award: Liyu Mekonnen, a PhD student advised by Dr. Alyssa Griffin. Liyu will address carbon storage in the seagrass meadows of Tomales Bay, specifically quantifying seagrass meadows’ contributions to carbon sequestration through alkalinity production. 

Celebrating Seagrass

In celebration of World Seagrass Day, we're highlighting seagrass-focused research conducted by UC Davis graduate students. Meet some of our dedicated scholars and delve into their research, exploring the significance of seagrasses and the implications for marine environments.

Serina Moheed

Ph.D. Student, Stachowicz Lab and Brown Lab, UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology

Genome Study Shows Recent Spread of Eelgrass

Beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina) form an important habitat in coastal regions throughout the northern hemisphere, crucial to many fish and other species and storing vast amounts of carbon. A new study published July 20 in Nature Plants shows that eelgrass spread around the world much more recently than previously thought, just under a quarter-million years ago. The results have implications for how eelgrass could be affected by a changing climate.