Grow That Sea Grass!

How Growing Sea Plants Can Help Slow Ocean Acidification

At Yale Environment 360 this week, science writer Nicola Jones reports on promising new research showing that planting sea grasses, kelp, and other marine vegetation helps absorb CO2 and, on a local scale, buffers rising ocean acidity. As Jones reports, experiments from the U.S. Pacific Northwest to Florida have shown that the presence of extensive beds of marine vegetation can help reduce the corrosive effects of acidic waters on shellfish, corals, and other sea life. With soaring CO2 emissions continuing to be absorbed by oceans, making them more acidic, cultivation of marine grasses and kelp could provide one form of what Jones calls “smaller, gentler” geoengineering.