April 20, 2019 – Ocean Acidification: Seagrasses; A Last Hope
Alysson Lowell, Stony Brook University. Ocean acidification is further exacerbated by coastal influences like nutrient loading and runoff. The result is an environment more vulnerable and more intense for coastal marine organisms. Both low oxygen and high acidity combine to generate organisms more physiologically stressed than their open ocean counterparts. Seagrasses may provide a refuge for marine organisms in this highly dynamic and changing world. Highly productive producing oxygen rich and comparatively more basic environments, seagrasses are more attuned to the changing oceans than many of their macrophytic counterparts.

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) in Great South Bay. Photo from https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/110813.html.