Jones et al. show that seagrass meadows can support fish communities with a richer mix of essential micronutrients than nearby coral reefs. Treating fish communities like natural multivitamins, the study finds that seagrass-associated fishes may provide important nutrition for coastal communities, especially where small-scale fisheries support food security and child health.

This study seeks to assemble a list of the pro-environmental behaviours that can contribute to seagrass conservation, to devise practical, and meaningful actions that members of the public can partici...

YouTube video by World Seagrass Association

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The prevalence of seagrass throughout human civilisation has fostered spiritual and cultural relations with these underwater gardens.

The prevalence of seagrass throughout human civilisation has fostered spiritual and cultural relations with these underwater gardens.

To protect and restore seagrass, we need reliable maps showing where seagrass is growing and how this is changing over time.  Global seagrass distribution and status is difficult to map and monitor, l...

Seagrasses have been entwined with human culture for millennia, constituting a natural resource that has supported humanity throughout this history. Understanding the societal value of seagrass fosters appreciation of these ecosystems, encouraging conservation and restoration actions to counteract historic and predicted losses. This study overviews the plethora of seagrass use in human history, ranging from spiritual and ceremonial roles, direct and indirect food resources, medicines and raw materials, dating back more than 180 000 years. While many past uses have been abandoned in modern societies, others have persisted or are being rediscovered, and new applications are emerging. As these uses of seagrasses depend on harvesting, we also underscore the need for sustainable practices to (re)generate positive interactions between seagrasses and society. Our review contributes to revalue seagrass societal ecosystem services, highlighting ancient and more recent human and seagrass relationships to incentivize conservation and restoration actions.

Meadows reduced to blackened stubs have pushed authorities and researchers into crisis mode

In 2019, scientists set out to map the extent of seagrass in Seychelles, an island nation off the eastern coast of Africa. There, they hit upon a startling number: More than 90% of the country’s “blue...

Seagrass ecosystems are increasingly recognized for their importance to biodiversity and marine ecosystem function, but they face many threats. This Review summarizes the contributions of seagrass eco...

Without appropriate management, seaweed farming programmes could be dangerous for marine biodiversity and the benefits that humans get from the ocean.

Risks of habitat loss from seaweed cultivation within seagrass

The spatial variation in sediment organic carbon stocks in a patchy seagrass meadow is linked to the temporal stability of the patches, according to an analysis of sediment samples and historical aeri...

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Social-Ecological Systems Society (SocSES) - a global community advancing research, practice, and collaboration for just and sustainable futures. Join us ...

Risks of habitat loss from seaweed cultivation within seagrass

Risks of habitat loss from seaweed cultivation within seagrass

Without appropriate management, seaweed farming programmes could be dangerous for marine biodiversity and the benefits that humans get from the ocean.

Would you like to support seagrass whilst being in with the chance of winning tickets to see Coldplay live at Wembley in summer 2025?

Would you like to support seagrass whilst being in with the chance of winning tickets to see Coldplay live at Wembley in summer 2025?

To understand the potential for seaweed as a Blue Carbon strategy, the authors quantify carbon burial under 20 globally distributed seaweed farms. They attribute an average of 1.06 ± 0.74 tCO2e ha−1 y...

A study aimed at revealing the role of small-scale fisheries in sustainable development shows they provide at least 40% of the global fishing catch and affect the livelihoods of 1 in 12 people in the ...

A study aimed at revealing the role of small-scale fisheries in sustainable development shows they provide at least 40% of the global fishing catch and affect the livelihoods of 1 in 12 people in the ...

Scientific Reports - Stakeholder diversity matters: employing the wisdom of crowds for data-poor fisheries assessments

Nature - Vox Populi

Scientific Reports - Stakeholder diversity matters: employing the wisdom of crowds for data-poor fisheries assessments

Large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs, >100,000 km2) account for over half of the global ocean under protection, yet little is known about their …

Assessing coral reefs across the inner Seychelles islands, using a 28-year dataset, we document faster coral recovery from the 2016 than the 1998 marine heatwave events. Further, a reef that had regi....