Source: CNN
Scientists studying a giant seagrass meadow spanning more than 110 miles in shallow water off the coast of Western Australia have concluded that the grassland is not many species of plants but a single species of plant – making it the largest grassland in the world. Located in Shark Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the sprawling grasslands are made up of a species of seagrass called Posidonia australis—Also known as ribbon weed or threadball grass — and home to animals such as turtles, mantises, dolphins, and various species of sharks. As many as 10,000 dugongs are thought to live in these waters, making up about 10% of the world’s remaining population.
In an effort to understand how many species of tree grow in grasslands and why it is so large, the researchers, led by Elizabeth Sinclair at the University of Western Australia, took samples at 10 sites across two inlets. into Shark Bay. They found that the nine samples were genetically identical, indicating that they belonged to the same species of giant plant, which began growing at one input before spreading to the neighboring tree. “The answer certainly surprised us — just one!” Sinclair told CNN.
Technically, grasslands are the largest known grasslands in the world asexual creatures, as seagrasses grow by self-replicating to produce genetically identical shoots. In the family paper in the magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society of B, the scientists also estimate how long it took for seedlings to become the large grasslands they are today — at least 4,500 years, since the rhizomes of ribbon weeds grew up to 14 inches a year. Spread over an estimated 49,000 acres – an area larger than Brooklyn – seagrass meadows baffle the previous record holder: Utah’s Pando, a clonal population of more than 40,000 quivering poplars found in only one area. area of 100 acres.
The team, which also measures environmental conditions such as water temperature and salinity, is trying to understand why ice sheet weeds appear to be undisturbed by fluctuating temperatures and are thriving in areas where the weeds are affected. waters have twice the salt concentration of other areas in Shark Bay. Seagrass restoration projects could prove important in mitigating the impacts of climate change, as seagrasses are an important habitat for carbon capture and sequestration.
