Seagrass

Join us in a celebration of all things seagrass! March 1st is World Seagrass Day, and we're taking an in-depth look at what seagrasses are, how they interact with marine coastal ecosystems, and how they're being impacted by climate change.

Join us in a celebration of World Seagrass Day 2022 by entering an original photo of seagrass OR by sharing your favorite seagrass fact in your own words using the entry form below. Winners will receive a copy of Suzie and the Eelgrass Geese autographed by the author. The book was written by Bodega Marine Laboratory alumna Dr. Nicole Kollars, edited by Carolyn Sotka, and beautifully illustrated by Allison Simler-Williamson. You can learn more about it here.

Spanning six years and seven seagrass meadows along the California coast, a paper published today from the University of California, Davis, is the most extensive study yet of how seagrasses can buffer ocean acidification.

Suzie and the Eelgrass Geese is the story of a young girl who lives in a small town on the coast of California whose love of the ocean leads her to work with a Professor at a local marine lab on an experiment that teaches important lessons about the balance of nature.

Seagrasses, specifically the species Zostera marina (or eelgrass), provide vital ecosystem services, such as nursery habitat for fish, sediment stabilization, and increased water clarity by slowing down waves. Unfortunately, seagrass populations have been in severe decline over the last century. Some of this is due to seagrass wasting disease, but much is due to human influences. A type of algae called epiphytes grows on the surface of seagrasses, and normally causes their hosts no harm. But when nutrients flow into the ocean (for example, fertilizer runoff), epiphyte bloo

By Aurora M. Ricart, Ph.D.

Seagrass meadows are considered important natural carbon sinks due to their capacity to store organic carbon (Corg) in sediments. However, the spatial heterogeneity of carbon storage in seagrass sediments needs to be better understood to improve the accuracy of Blue Carbon assessments, particularly when strong gradients are present. We performed an intensive coring study within a sub-tropical estuary to assess the spatial variability in sedimentary Corg associated with seagrasses, and to identify the key factors promoting this variability.

Though bacteria often get a bad reputation, many organisms depend on them. Humans, for example, have gut bacteria that aid with digestion. Similarly, marine plants, like seagrass, host a collection of microorganisms potentially vital to their health. At UC Davis, researchers have created the Seagrass Microbiome Project to learn about these microbial inhabitants. Through the project, they are looking to see whether certain bacteria are fundamental to the plant’s survival.

“We’re in a region with a Mediterranean climate and upwelling— what’s cool is that both of these are associated with high levels of biodiversity,” says Grace Ha, an ecology Ph.D. student. In upwelling zones, nutrient-rich waters from the deep ocean are transported to coastal regions, which makes them hotspots for biodiversity.

Read more at the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences

At the Bodega Marine Laboratory and CMSI, we couldn’t be more honored and humbled to have Dr. Susan Williams a part of our community for so long. On the 26th of October, over 180 people from around the world gathered to celebrate the life of Dr. Williams.  

“I wanted to be an oceanographer since second grade, without understanding what that meant other than being fascinated by "things" that washed up on the beach during seaside family vacations.” - Dr. Susan Williams in her CMSI Spotlight.