Seagrass regeneration backed by science
CategoriesSustainable News

Seagrass regeneration backed by science

Spotted: Seagrass is the only flowering plant that grows in marine environments, living in shallow, sheltered coastal areas and forming dense, underwater meadows. These meadows support thousands of marine species, provide vital sources of food for human communities, store carbon, prevent land erosion, and help keep coastal waters clean.

But seagrass is also under significant threat — almost 20 per cent of seagrass meadows have been lost since the late 19th century. Working to turn this around is non-profit Project Seagrass. Founded in 2013 by four scientists, the non-profit works to protect seagrass around the globe through research, conservation action, education, and collaboration with local communities and stakeholders.

The organisation recently worked with the WWF in the UK’s first substantial seagrass restoration project, alongside Swansea University, North Wales Wildlife Trust, and Pen Llyn. Up to 92 per cent of UK seagrass has been lost, and the Seagrass Ocean Rescue Upscaling Project (SORUP) in Wales involved trialling various techniques to restore seagrass meadows at scale. These include the use of a robot developed by San Francisco-based Reefgen called Shack, that helped plant seagrass seeds on site. Shack can hold up to 20,000 seeds mixed with mud, which it injects into sediment within the seabed.

The results of the trials will inform SORUP and others on how to improve the cost and time efficiency of seagrass restoration, including whether it is more effective to plant new meadows by hand or using robots like Shack. The aim is to create a restoration blueprint that can be applied to other countries.

Project Seagrass and SORUP are not the only ones working to restore ocean plants. Springwise has also spotted seagrass grain being used for sustainable feed production and the use of AI-powered robots to farm seaweed more efficiently.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

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Carbon investments backed by AI and satellite data
CategoriesSustainable News

Carbon investments backed by AI and satellite data

Spotted: There are a huge number of organisations working to reduce global emissions – with schemes for everything from capturing carbon from the air to sequestration and carbon capture for shipping. Now fintech Earthbanc has a new idea — land regeneration. The company argues that by transitioning to regenerative agriculture on 2.5 billion hectares of land, it would be possible to sequester all global emissions produced; and they have a plan to incentivise regenerative land management practices.

However, one issue with regenerative land programmes is transparency – it is very difficult to verify that a scheme is actually sequestering a specified amount of carbon. Without having this information, it is impossible to effectively use carbon credits to contribute to land regeneration schemes. Earthbanc’s platform solves this problem by using artificial intelligence (AI), trained on satellite remote sensing data collected in collaboration with the European Space Agency, to automatically audit the carbon reduction impact of land regeneration projects and to verify carbon credits.

Farmers register on the Earthbanc platform, and the platform automatically measures the carbon sequestration on their land. Companies can then invest in the project using carbon credits to offset their carbon use. Earthbanc uses blockchain technology to keep a transparent record of carbon reduction so that companies buying carbon credits can verify their value. Using credits, the platform effectively allows companies to deposit their carbon “into a bank-like vault.”

Earthbanc CEO Tom Duncan explains that “What makes Earthbanc’s solution so potent in combating the climate crisis is its basis on expert knowledge of land restoration and paying farmers in areas of the world where the impact is the greatest – both for nature and for people.” He adds that they have many corporate buyers, “who are buying carbon on our platform every month. We’re selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of carbon, so a farmer can get paid for their ecosystem services.”

Avoiding meat and driving electric vehicles will only take the world so far in reducing carbon consumption. It is also necessary to sequester carbon released into the atmosphere. Luckily, there is no shortage of projects finding innovative ways to do this, including a project that turns sequestered CO2 to stone and an artificial leaf that captures carbon dioxide.

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Reference