Scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia), in collaboration with the Queensland Government (Australia), have discovered 34 previously unknown seagrass meadows in the Red Sea by tracking the foraging behavior of green turtles.
In a new study released in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, the experiment demonstrates the benefits of observing turtles to survey marine ecosystems that are crucial for carbon capture and economic livelihood and provides new information for sustainability policies in the Red Sea.
Seagrass, mangroves and salt marshes are the bodies most responsible for blue carbon – carbon absorbed by coastal vegetation – and are more effective than carbon capture than rain forests. Adding their economic value, which is estimated to be at least tens of billions of dollars, international cooperation is ongoing for their sustainability. Relevant policies have heavily depended on satellite observations to survey their locations and size, which are useful for shallow coastal bodies but not nearly as reliable for seagrass. However, models estimate that only 10 percent of seagrass area has been identified. The new study shows that for a more accurate assessment of seagrass, sophisticated space technology benefits when complemented by lazy green laborers wearing tags for remote sensing.
KAUST Ibn Sina Distinguished Professor Carlos Duarte, who led the study, said that for comparable surveys, airplanes fitted with hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors, the only technology that can match that of green turtles in accuracy, would cost several tens of millions of dollars, while tagging sea turtles would cost less than one percent that.“Countries need reliable, accurate data to make good policies for protection of the environment, which also protects their economies. Our study provides crucial data for the Red Sea, which will assist the many countries along it in formulating conservation strategies and blue carbon programs,” he said Duarte.Because the population of green turtles is growing in the Red Sea and these animals forage for seagrass, the scientists tagged and tracked 53 turtles who were free to wander the sea.
The turtles led to the discovery of 34 previously unknown seagrass meadows, increasing the known area of seagrass in the Red Sea by nearly 15 percent. More impressively, the turtles were about 20 times more reliable at identifying seagrass meadows than the Allen Coral Atlas, a popular public database for scientists that maps the world’s coasts. Much of the difference between the two observation systems was attributed to the turtles revealing seagrass meadows at depths beyond 5 meters. Seagrass can reach depths of 70 meters, and its capacity to capture blue carbon varies with its depth.
This post was originally published on here
