Seagrass meadows might not catch the eye like coral reefs, but they play an important and often unsung role in coastal protection, particularly as climate change increasingly eats away at shorelines. Protecting and restoring seagrass meadows, experts say, is a key “nature-based solution” that can also soak up and store carbon. Seagrasses reduce erosion and bind sediments with their roots, similar to how a forest stabilizes soil, says Oscar Serrano Gras, a research fellow at the Blanes Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB) in Spain and Edith Cowan University in Australia. “They naturally have this capacity to protect the shoreline from erosion,” he adds. That also means they are incredibly efficient at storing carbon dioxide. Across the globe, the increasing strength and duration of storms, as well as their frequency, is chipping away at coastlines due to climate change. That’s linked to flooding, damage to infrastructure, and potentially hazardous cliff falls. “The fact that we are losing this protection belt of seagrass along the shorelines also contributes to coastal erosion,” Gras says. Cymodocea nodosa seagrass in Spain, also known as Little Neptune grass. Restoring and protecting seagrass can have climate and coastal protection benefits. Image courtesy of Liam McGuire/Ocean Image Bank. Reducing waves, binding sediment When seagrass meadows are healthy and abundant, they can form a belt along the coastline that helps slow down waves and reduce their height. “Seagrass creates additional resistance to fluid motion, which reduces wave energy,” says Heidi Nepf, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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