The wine ain't sweeter, either side of the hill. Science News, This seagrass is taking over the Chesapeake Bay. That’s good and bad news
On the U.S. mid-Atlantic seaboard, efforts to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay over the last 10 years have faced a mysterious challenge — massive booms and busts of the seagrass meadows that provide crucial habitats for juvenile blue crabs, black sea bass and scores of other creatures. Now researchers have uncovered the surprising reasons for these dramatic swings.
A weedy plant that used to lurk only at low levels in the Bay is becoming dominant, dethroning the Bay’s historically predominant eelgrass, says ecologist Chris Patrick of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in Gloucester Point. Widgeongrass’s ability to grow like, well, a weed has caused the Bay’s seagrass meadow to nearly triple in extent, Patrick and colleagues report May 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That was a “big shock to everyone,” he says. But widgeongrass is also more vulnerable than eelgrass to sunlight-blocking water pollution, making it prone to huge crashes.
These findings offer “a weird message of hope,” says VIMS ecologist Marc Hensel. Understanding the ecology of shifting seagrasses offers solutions to better protecting and restoring sea meadows, not just in the Chesapeake Bay but also for many other estuaries and coastal ecosystems.
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| Chesapeake Bay seagrass meadow coverage in 2019 |
But another graph suggests that the changes have not been all that dramatic.
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