Successful sand capping and eelgrass restoration in Swedish bay area miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
University of Gothenburg
Losses of important eelgrass meadows in western Sweden since the 1980s have led to considerable bottom erosion and the release of carbon and nitrogen; substances that contribute to increasing climate change and eutrophication. This is shown in a new study by researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Åbo Akademi University and the University of Southern Denmark, published in the journal Ecosphere.
Eelgrass beds play an important role for coastal ecosystems and provide humans with several valuable ecosystem services. They constitute important habitats for cod and other commercial dish species, they increase biodiversity and provide clearer water by stabilizing the bottom. They also capture and store organic material rich in carbon and nutrients for a long time in the sediment, which reduces climate effects and eutrophication. The ongoing loss of eelgrass meadows along e.g. the Swedish West Coast worries researchers that carbon and nu