WCS 3-Sentence Science

Long-Leafed Indian Seagrass is Major Carbon Sink

April 15, 2019

Photo credit: WCS-India Program

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present Vardhan Patankar and Tanmay Wagh’s work on Indian seagrass as a carbon sink:

1. Researchers studied flowering and fruiting of the tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides), the longest-leafed seagrass species in Indian waters and a major carbon sink.
2. The species, which can grow up to a meter and a half long, can bury carbon in underwater sediments 40 times faster than tropical forests bury it in the soil, while providing refuge for more than 1,000 species of fish, and food for green sea turtles and dugongs — a close relative to manatees.
3. The study provided baseline knowledge to protect the species, which is threatened by trawl fishing, sand mining, coastal construction, sewage and other pollutants.

Study and Journal: “Observations on the female flowers and fruiting of Tape Grass Enhalus acoroides from South Andaman Islands, India,” from Journal of Threatened Taxa
WCS Co-Author(s): Vardhan Patankar , WCS India Program ; Tanmay Wagh , WCS India Program

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.