If you ask most people about what goes on in the sea, they will probably give you responses that mention the same things. It's well known that the oceans hold many different fish, some scary sharks, colorful corals, weird creepy stuff like eels and octopuses, turtles, whales and dolphins... and a whole bunch of salty water. Very few people know about an incredibly important marine plant, which does a ton of good for the planet and everything living on it: seagrass! On the surface it may not be the most charistmatic life form in the sea, but it supports a wide variety of ecological functions, from aquatic gas exchange to nutrient regulation and, most importantly, as a home for tons of those well-known creatures.
After college, I spent three years working on my master's degree in New York, and I learned a lot about one type of seagrass we have in the US. I studied why and how it is being impacted by stressors like disease and excess heat, and tried to provide some guidance on how to better care for it. Now, I'm in the Canary Islands. The seagrass here is a different species but it's just as important. While I'm here, I'm going to be working with a professor who has lots of ideas about how to restore and protect the local seagrass.
