Massachusetts seagrass meeting At Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole
I couldn’t wait to drive down to Cape Cod to learn about the latest seagrass updates from my marine biologist friends at Woods Hole. Our meetings during covid had all been online, but on this sunny day it was held at the Marine Biological Lab. I parked out side of Woods hole in the MBL parking lot and hopped on the mini-bus that drove me to the Lab. It was a pleasant 20 minute ride with the local driver telling me all about the sharks. I got dropped off right in front of this neo- classical building called the Lillie building. A few PHD students were roaming around.
Our meeting was held in ClassRoom 103 in the basement conference room and was organized by Mirta Teichberg, Associate Scientist Director, Semester of Environmental Science. It was very exciting meeting new people and connecting with familiar scientists over coffee & bagels. We all introduced ourselves and gave updates on our seagrass projects, there were nine of us present and several more on the video call.
The discussions of blue crabs being spotted on the cape was fascinating. Many had spotted signs of them in the field. There was also talk about how they could be potentially munching on seagrass. Actually chopping seagrass with their pinchers and leaving straight lines. I thought this was fascinating, since I thought green crabs were the invasive species that were pointed out for their vexing relationships with seagrass. Apparently there is also an abundance of Callinectus Sapudius a blue crab species. Scientists from MBL went out to explore what was happening in West Falmouth Harbor. Three sites were set up with two different types of traps. They studied species composition, abundance size and class. We were presented with these cool grids of data- the left green section below is the food the crabs ate and the top shows stable Isptopes of Carbon and Nitrogen.
More on Isotopes can be found here
What is fascinating is that the scientists can determine what these crabs have been eating. The food web of these crabs are analyzed using stable isotope analysis (C and N) of plants and animal. It’s pretty amazing to see the lists of food these crustaceans chow down on.
Their findings suggest that eelgrass does indeed exist in their bellies. This brought up the question of what impact are they having on the eelgrass beds? What are the interactions of these crabs with seagrass in Cape Cod. Are they just nibbling on eelgrass or are they overeating? They found out that the crabs were indeed causing disturbances to the balance on seagrass meadow. This data will be used in restoration and conservation of seagrass on the Cape.
Next we took a look at the different stages of Seagrass seedling reproduction.
Seagrasses can reproduce through both asexual cloning of their rhizomes and sexually. Sexual reproduction occurs through the formation of flowers, seeds and fruit. The world’s largest plant and clone Posidonia Australis is seagrass meadows that is genetically identical in Shark Bay, Australia and is as big as Washington DC. The problem however is heat waves, this 4,500 year old meadow has decreased in size from 200 square kilometers to 180 square kilometers. Read more about this fascinating clone here.
One theory is that the seedling recruitment may be the solution to dealing with climate change. It may help the genetic diversity and strengthens the resilience of seagrass meadows towards environmental stressors. Seagrasses can disperse seeds by the sea surface and or can form seed-banks by having dormant seeds in the sediment. Back in the conference room I was learning about the different stages of seedling reproduction.
Why is it important to understand some of these stages? Scientists can track what happens to seagrass reproduction under normal conditions and compare data as things change. This can help gauge what stressors are affecting the meadows. Anthropogenic stressors such as coastal development, poor water quality and dredging are the main causes of seagrass decline. In addition warming temperatures are also negatively affecting seagrasses and their sexual reproduction. Understanding different stages of reproduction is crucial to seagrass’ restoration and management.
Mirta Teichberg gave us a tour of MBL after our meeting. It was fantastic to see so many different ocean creatures under one roof. This Cephalopod section actually had an awesome octopus in a playful den. The squid had cool shapes and it was fun watching them move. I’ve made mini videos and posted them here.
For now I’ve just added a few of the fun marine life we checked out, Skaket( Egg cases for Embryos of fish(, Clams, and a tentacle, and the Horse Shoe Crabs.
We also walked around the facility to check out the different machines that can simulate different environmental effects and see how seagrass responds.
We ended our tour with looking at some actual seagrass seedlings- So Cool!
Thank you to Mitra and team for a beautiful day at MBL in Woods Hole. More info about the lab can be found at Marine Biological Lab.
