Science is a collaborative effort, multitudes of diverse people and organizations spanning thousands of years have led to our understanding of the world today. To address climate change, one of the biggest challenges of our generation, collaboration is critical now more than ever. Companies and environmentalists have turned towards nature to soak up greenhouse gasses by fostering ecosystems that effectively store carbon. In the scramble to find which ecosystems can capture the most carbon, a small number of scientists have devoted themselves to seagrasses.
The Caribbean Carbon Accounting in Seagrass project (CariCAS) is an ongoing research effort funded by the Nature Conservancy. The CariCAS project’s biggest impact has been creating a layperson guide for studying carbon in seagrass. This allows Caribbean researchers to be consistent across all study sites, that way samples can be analyzed and compared accurately throughout the project. CariCAS was begun by Dr. Jim Fourqurean in 2018 and now spans 21 countries and 65 seagrass meadows in the Caribbean.
Jim didn’t always know that a biology major would take him into the underwater realm. But a chance encounter in an introductory oceanography course changed his life. His professor was offering a seagrass research internship. The catch was that the intern had to know how to drive a boat and had the summer free. “I threw my hand up from the front of the class because I was that kind of student.” Fourqurean laughed. “I lied on both of the qualifications. I already had 2 summer jobs lined up, and I’d never driven a boat in my life.” Jim got the job.
That was in 1982. After this initial experience Fourqurean earned a PhD from the University of Virginia in 1992. Now, 32 years later, Dr. Fourqurean is the principal investigator for CariCAS and has been a professor and researcher at Florida International University in Miami since 1993. He’s stuck with studying seagrass for so long because of their importance as a model ecosystem. Because seagrasses grow under water, there are limits to the types of organisms that can live in them, which makes studying them less complicated.
Fourqurean sees CariCAS as a way to raise awareness about the importance of seagrass. In addition to storing even more carbon than forests, seagrasses deliver many other vital ecosystem services. Seagrasses filter water, serve as nurseries for fish, and stabilize coastlines. And those services add up to real dollars. It’s estimated that it would take $19,000 per year to artificially perform the same services that a hectare, approximately the size of a baseball field, of seagrass does.
Ecological economics, which is an important part of CariCAS, puts a dollar value on these services. Dr. Forqurean explains “the goal of the field is to try to make people understand that healthy ecosystems are huge contributors to the economic systems of the world”. Seagrass is considered the third most valuable ecosystem in the world, while also being one of the most threatened.
Humans harm seagrasses in many ways that degrade their ecological and therefore economic value. Resorts often “beautify” beaches by removing seagrasses. Boats sometimes rip out swaths of seagrass when they anchor. A study published by Dr. Fourqurean and Bermudian researchers, surveying Bermuda’s seagrass beds, showed that all the studied sites declined from 2007 to 2017. The culprit, oddly enough, is sea turtle grazing! As shark populations have declined, reducing predation, sea turtles have thrived. So countries, like Bermuda, have seen increased grazing leading to seagrass declines.
However, resorts, boats, and sea turtles aren’t the biggest threat that seagrasses face. Dr. Fourqurean believes that water pollution is the real killer. Everything from excess nutrients that drive algal blooms to increased silt and sand being introduced due to dredging can harm seagrasses. He explained “It’s usually not even in the water…everything in the Mississippi River catchment area flows into the Gulf of Mexico”. Dr. Fourqurean explains that the fight to protect seagrasses must go far beyond coastal waters. Ultimately, it means cleaning up the whole of the Mississippi watershed, which measures four times the size of Texas.
However, many countries with major seagrass meadows, like the Bahamas and the Philippines, don’t have the resources to protect these ecosystems against increasingly international pressures like pollution and climate change.
By focusing on the carbon storage potential of seagrass, the CariCAS team is drawing global attention to these critical local ecosystems. This can raise awareness and incentivize companies and governments to view seagrass protection and restoration as a way to earn carbon credits. These credits can then be sold on global carbon markets to help companies offset their emissions.
The CariCAS project is also mobilizing passionate community members and researchers in Caribbean countries. There’s a growing concern about scientists from richer countries practicing “parachute science,” when foreign researchers gather their data, pack their bags, and leave without looking back. Some countries are combating this. The Bahamas have placed a moratorium on international researchers collecting samples.
The CariCas project is different. It promises that everyone involved in the project will be credited for the work. Dr. Fourqurean predicts that “we’re looking at 50 or 60 authors on this 1st paper”.
CariCas aims to fight parachute science by supporting local community research involvement and giving that data back to communities to make policy and conservation decisions. An example of this support Dr. Fourqurean shared is his experience working with Haitians who were dedicated to the project. The first round of sampling in Haiti ended up being unusable because there was a language barrier — the sampling procedure was only written in English and Spanish, not Creole. Dr. Fourqurean explained “They immediately said: well give us another chance”. The second time was the charm. Faultless samples were sent from Haiti in the middle of a war within the country.
Fourqurean sees this as an example of how “People are driven by their love for these ecosystems, and they’re looking for ways to understand them better and to reach out”
Overall, the CariCAS project isn’t just accounting for the carbon in seagrass ecosystems. It’s bridging gaps in research, connecting countries with a common goal, and empowering communities to bring awareness to their valuable resources. There is no science without people and there are no people without nature.