Seagrass Reintroduction
The Project
Common Eelgrass (Zostera marina)
Seagrass are the only group of marine flowering plants, often located in shallow sheltered areas along many coasts of the world. These plants grow bright green leaves which form dense underwater meadows that cover sandy sea beds. Seagrass is a keystone species forming the critical base of an entire ecosystems. The habitats that meadows form can support thousands of marine species including, crustaceans, shellfish, polychaete worms, and fish. Compared to neighbouring sandy habitats seagrass meadows can have over 30 times more species living within them.
Not only do seagrasses make fantastic habitats they are also a key part of aspect of global carbon storage. While seagrass only covers 0.1% of the seafloor, they are responsible for 11% of the organic carbon storage in the ocean. Combined with mangrove and wetland habitats these ecosystems are responsible for more carbon capture then the rainforests.
Seagrass Restoration
We are aiming to restore seagrass to the Tees estuary and surrounding coastline. In order to do this, we are growing seagrass plants from seeds at our nursery facility in Hartlepool.
Our Seagrass Facility
Seagrass Nursery
Our nursery facility is built within a 40ft shipping container. This is a closed system. Water from the estuary is pumped into a sump which is circulated between 6 large growing tanks. we can control the light, temperature and salinity in this system. It is also used for rotting out seagrass spathes to access the seeds and germinating seeds under controlled condition. We are running experiments on germination success using different sediments and salinities.
Seagrass Polytunnel
Our seagrass polytunnel is supplied with water directly from the estuary in a flow through system. Once the seagrass has germinated in our nursery facility it is moved out into the polytunnel to grow under natural lighting and in the water it will eventually be planted in. Some of these plants will be transplanted directly into the estuary. Others will be kept back to produce seeds for future work.
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Project Partners and Funders
