Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 14, 2025
14:44
Field Collection and Laboratory Maintenance of Canopy-Forming Giant Kelp to Facilitate Restoration
Published on: June 7, 2024
1.9K
Rewilding the Sea with Domesticated Seagrass
Marieke M van Katwijk1, Brigitta I van Tussenbroek2, Steef V Hanssen3
1Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Bioscience
|November 4, 2021
Summary
Seagrass restoration needs seeds, but natural sources are limited. We propose seagrass domestication and mariculture to produce seeds for large-scale seagrass meadow rewilding and ecosystem service recovery.
Area of Science:
- Marine Biology
- Conservation Science
- Ecosystem Restoration
Background:
- Seagrass meadows provide critical ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, coastal protection, fisheries support, and biodiversity enhancement.
- Significant loss of seagrass meadows necessitates large-scale restoration efforts to revive these vital planetary services.
- Current restoration methods are limited by the availability of donor material from natural meadows, which can lead to further degradation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and provide a roadmap for the domestication and mariculture of seagrasses.
- To address the challenge of sourcing sufficient seed material for large-scale seagrass meadow restoration.
- To enable the rewilding of the sea with seagrass meadows through sustainable seed production.
Main Methods:
- Assessing reproductive traits of various seagrass species for their suitability for domestication.
- Developing mariculture techniques for mass seed production.
- Creating a strategic roadmap for implementing seagrass domestication and rewilding initiatives.
Main Results:
- Identified that 44% of seagrass species possess promising reproductive traits suitable for domestication and seed-based rewilding.
- Demonstrated the feasibility of a mariculture approach for producing large quantities of seagrass seeds.
- Outlined a strategic pathway for scaling up restoration efforts.
Conclusions:
- Seagrass domestication and mariculture offer a viable solution for producing seeds needed for large-scale seagrass restoration.
- Partially domesticating species can serve as an effective shortcut for restoring threatened keystone species and their ecosystem services.
- This approach is crucial for reviving the ecological functions of seagrass meadows globally.
