When Trinity Nicholas was a child, she would walk through lush beds of seagrass off the shores of her home in Pictou County to swim in the warm waters of the Northumberland Strait.
Grasslands of green fronds lined the coast, providing vital habitat for lobsters, crabs, small invertebrates and a variety of other species, including eels that were an important part of their heritage on Pictou Landing First Nation.
Years later, when Nicholas heard about a project to help restore plants in parts of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes, he ventured back to the same site in search of samples. Instead of the healthy seagrass beds of his childhood, he found a desolate, sandy expanse free of the marine life that used to grow around Maliko’mijk Island.
“Eelgrass used to be very abundant on the shores there,” he says from the reserve about two hours from Halifax. “When we went to restore it, it was practically empty. We spent two days looking for sea grass to use it. It is very depleted and the erosion is only getting worse.”
It is a phenomenon that is observed in all maritime areas and throughout the world as the plant falls victim to warming waters, invasive species, human activities that alter the seabed and pollution. The loss has significant implications for coastal sustainability, biodiversity and carbon sequestration, according to scientists trying to halt its decline across the northern hemisphere.
Common seagrass, a type of seagrass known by its Latin name Marina Zostera, is a refuge for marine species that feed, seek refuge and spawn there. In Atlantic Canada, it is key habitat for about 25 different fisheries, including eels, lobsters, flatfish and salmon.
This flowering plant, much like grass but unique in its ability to survive in the ocean, also protects coastlines from erosion by breaking up wave energy, something that is increasingly important as storms become more frequent and gain strength.
However, one of its most notable benefits is carbon storage.
Researchers, biologists and Indigenous communities are working together to bring eelgrass, with its role in creating healthy coastlines and its carbon storage capacity, back to Nova Scotia’s shores.
“He really is an unsung hero,” says Kristina Boerder, a research scientist at Dalhousie University who is leading an ambitious project to study and restore eelgrass in parts of the Maritimes.
“It is extremely efficient at trapping carbon and storing it. About 0.2 percent of the global ocean is occupied by seagrasses, but it stores a disproportionately large amount of carbon in the ocean.”
The grass stores nearly 10 percent of the world’s carbon each year in its biomass, and some of it funnels into its underwater root system and forms a sedimentary carbon pool much like trees on land. If left undisturbed, carbon can be stored indefinitely.
The problem is that little is known about where and how abundant eelgrass is in Nova Scotia, and how much carbon it actually stores.
Those are some of the questions the Community Seagrass Restoration Initiative (CERI) hopes to answer, while harvesting and planting seedlings at about 10 sites across the province. Led by Dr. Boerder and scientists from Dalhousie University’s Future of Marine Ecosystems (FOME) laboratory, the community project is being carried out in close collaboration with the Confederation of Mainland Mi’kmaq.
“Our goal is to restore a significant area of seagrasses around Nova Scotia, rebuilding these ecosystems and doing so in a climate-smart way,” says Derek Tittensor, head of the FOME research group and professor of biology at Dalhousie.
“Importantly, we are also integrating indigenous and scientific knowledge of these extraordinary ecosystems through a two-eyed approach. Everything we do aims to work with and learn from indigenous and local communities.”
The team has planted nearly 1,900 seedlings to date, including nearly 1,000 distributed by 30 elders and community members who waded into the shallow waters at Pictou Landing First Nation last summer. They plan to plant each year, as does Dr. Boerder, who also plans to evaluate eelgrass in the Bras d’Or lakes.
They are also examining hundreds of mud samples to date and measuring the amount of carbon stored in the sediments. Dr. Tittensor is conducting laboratory experiments to simulate the effects of warming water on seed germination and restoration success. And CERI is collecting seagrass sightings by citizen scientists to better manage the species’ range.
Nicholas, head of Pictou Landing’s Indigenous Habitat Engagement programme, says he is hopeful the work will help curb erosion, restore the fledgling eel fishery and preserve sacred territory.
“These are traditional lands and our elders are very interested in saving them,” he says. “It’s very important to us as Mi’kmaq people, especially as stewards of our own land.”
Climate Story Network is an initiative of Climate Focus, a nonprofit organization dedicated to covering stories about community-driven climate solutions.