Scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), a conservation charity, are restoring seagrass meadows in the Thames estuary, in the hope of improving water quality and creating habitats for fish, seahorses and sharks.
The UK project, led by ZSL conservation biologist Thea Cox, sees dwarf eelgrass (Zostera noltii) planted in research beds across three intertidal sites using two techniques. One involves the transplantation of fully grown plants to new areas, where the plant can spread via rhizomes, and another involves the harvesting and planting of seeds from nearby donor meadows.
The team is monitoring each research bed to better understand the effects that sediment type, temperature, light, current and wave energies have on the plants. The eventual aim will be to scale up the restoration. “What’s so important about [seagrass] is the way it creates a habitat,” says Cox. “Hopefully we’ll see higher numbers of fish, a greater diversity of fish, seahorses, sharks being able to use that habitat and come back in greater numbers to clearer, cleaner waters,” she adds.
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