Seagrass beds are severely degraded! How to protect the "hairline" of the ocean? Seaweed | ecosystem | hairline
According to the news hyperlink of China Central Radio and Television's Voice of China, China's first national standard for seagrass bed ecosystem restoration technology, "Guidelines for Marine Ecological Restoration Technology Part 4: Seagrass Bed Ecological Restoration," was recently approved and released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, and will be officially implemented on December 1 this year.
Seagrass is the only type of higher angiosperms on the earth that can live completely in the sea. The seagrass bed is one of the three typical offshore marine ecosystems and one of the three blue carbon ecosystems. It is also the most effective carbon capture on the earth. And one of the storage systems has extremely high ecological service functions.
However, according to statistics, since 1990, the global seagrass bed has been decreasing at a rate of 7% per year, and about 29% of the seagrass bed has disappeared. Our seagrass beds have also been severely damaged. Therefore, how to speed up the ecological restoration of seagrass beds has become one of the urgent problems for marine environmental protection in China. What do seagrass beds mean to marine ecosystems? Why are they degraded? And how can they be repaired?
The Indispensable Ecosystem
According to Wang Yamin, a professor at the School of Oceanography on the Weihai Campus of Shandong University, the seagrass bed ecosystem refers to a nearshore ecosystem formed with seagrass as the core, including animals, plants, algae, and other organisms. There are not necessarily many biological species, but the biomass is larger.
Different from the lower plants of spore reproduction such as kelp and seaweed, seagrass belongs to grasses and is a flowering higher angiosperm. The seaweed individuals are relatively large, some algae can reach tens of meters in length, while the seaweed is relatively low, generally no more than two or three meters. The seaweed in northern my country is higher than that in the south.
Seamless seaweed, when it forms a complete ecosystem, has ecological stability and biodiversity, which plays a very important role in maintaining the marine environment and marine ecosystem. For example, a large number of juvenile fish and shrimp use seagrass beds as feeding grounds and shelters, which is conducive to maintaining a healthy balance of marine life groups.
Seagrass, related to you
Because seagrass grows in shallow seas and tidal flats, this ecosystem close to humans is vulnerable to human activities. With the increase of population and economic development, human activities are bound to affect the survival of seagrass. On the one hand, human activities such as digging shellfish or offshore reclamation, and reclaiming land from the sea will threaten the growth environment of seaweed; on the other hand, environmental pollution will also cause microalgae to grow on the surface of the sea, affecting the photosynthesis of seaweed.
The degradation of seagrass beds will lead to changes in marine ecosystems, which will prevent marine ecosystems from performing their ecological functions and functions well, resulting in a series of problems such as reduced marine biodiversity and reduced productivity. The loss of the balance of this ecosystem will affect the quality of human production and life.
Participation of all people, joint repair
Wang Yamin said that the pursuit of human quality of life and the restoration of seagrass beds inevitably lead to contradictions. To reconcile these contradictions, we need a comprehensive layout and balance different interests. "Consider where seagrass beds can be restored, and where the improvement of the quality of human life is mainly met, rather than'one size fits all' restoration."
Seagrass beds, mangroves, and coral reefs are the three typical marine ecosystems. As the most fragile ecosystems, seagrass beds especially need to attract the attention of the whole society. The protection of seagrass beds is also not the task of individuals or institutions, but requires the participation of the whole population. As the general public, they can participate in the ecological restoration of seagrass beds by raising protection awareness, donating, etc., and they can also directly participate in activities such as planting grass and making grass on seagrass beds.
According to statistics, more than 80% of seagrass beds in China have been completely degraded. Wang Yamin said that at present, the main goal of ecological restoration of seagrass beds is to restore their historical state and carry out a more reasonable layout of seagrass beds on this basis.
