LA JOLLA—Seagrasses preserve our oceans, offering safe harbor for sea life, calming rough waters, and storing excess carbon dioxide. Dozens of seagrass species protect coastlines around the globe, including the common North American eelgrass, Zostera marina. But these beneficial underwater meadows are under threat from boating, dredging, disease, and extreme weather. Restoration efforts that simply replant more eelgrasses fail around half the time—so, what now?
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Credit: Salk Institute
Scientists from the Salk Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego say one solution is genomically informed restoration. In the waters of San Diego’s Mission Bay, a new hybrid seagrass has begun to grow. The hybrid is a cross between the shallow-water Zostera marina and its deeper-water cousin, Zostera pacifica, whose tolerance for low-light conditions is a favorable trait…
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