Seagrass and Neptune Balls

 

Seagrass and Neptune Balls by Yolanda Ridge

Here’s something you probably know (or could figure out): seagrass is grass that grows in the sea, usually close to shore in clusters called meadows.

Here’s something you probably didn’t know: seagrass is helping to fight plastic pollution.

How?

By removing microplastics from the ocean.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: When blades of seagrass die, they sink to the ocean floor and hang out between long blades of grass that are still growing strong.

Step 2: Ocean water washes through these seagrass meadows as the tide moves in and out.

Step 3: Tiny bits of plastic in the water get trapped among the living blades of grass and tumble about with the dead ones.

Step 4: Over time, they form something called Neptune balls.

Step 5: As Neptune balls grow in size, they eventually escape the seagrass meadow—with the help of waves—and roll toward shore.

Scientists estimate Neptune balls from a specific species of seagrass collect nearly 900 million plastic items in the Mediterranean Sea alone—every single year. That’s good news for ocean ecosystems since microplastics are a danger to everything from sea creatures to seagrass itself.

And that’s not all! Seagrass also:

• improves water quality by filtering out more than just plastic,

• fights climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, and

• provides a home for hundreds of different fish species.

So next time you’re swimming at the beach and feel something tickle your toes, look down and see if you’re swimming over a seagrass meadow. Leave it be and then give those Neptune balls a hand by picking up whatever plastic you see—on land or at sea—and disposing of it properly.

Yolanda Ridge is a middle grade author and science writer from Rossland, BC. Her most recent nonfiction book for young adult readers, CRISPR: A Powerful Way to Change DNA (Annick, 2020) is available wherever you buy books. Visit http://www.yolandaridge.com to find out more.

Image Credits

1. Seagrass Photograph: Milorad Mikota/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

2. Neptune ball at Sea Photograph: Oplats/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

3. Neptune Balls on Shore Photograph: Marta Veny/UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA/AFP/Getty Images

Source Information

1. Sànchez-Vidal, A.; Canals, M.; de Haan, W.P.; Romero, J.; Veny, M. “Seagrasses provide a novel ecosystem service by trapping marine plastics”. Scientific Reports, January, 2021.

Doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79370-

2. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-seagrass-meadows-marine-plastic-sea.html

3. https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2021/01/003.html

Youth and Their Science Discoveries

Paula Johanson

There are a variety of stories from around the world, telling of young people using science to discover amazing and useful things! Many of their projects are of particular interest in a world facing climate change and resource emergencies.

Check out the story of Fionn Ferriera, described as an eighteen-year-old wunderkind. At the 2019 Google Science Fair, he took the top prize. His invention? Creating a way to remove microplastics from ocean water. Click here for a link to read more about Fionn and the Google Science Fair.

It's not so simple to tell you the story of a South African youth who was part of a resounding success at rescuing penguins, during the oil spill when a tanker sank off his country's coast in 2000. He learned of the difficulty rescuers were having in removing crude oil safely and completely from the feathers of sea birds. While practising at home with a couple of feathers and a sample of crude oil, this teenager ended up inventing a way to clean oil spills off penguins, using a combination of dish detergent and ... well, that would be telling. Dyan deNapoli tells all about this teenager and his dad as one small part of her terrific book The Great Penguin Rescue: 40,000 Penguins, a Devastating Oil Spill, and the Inspiring Story of the World's Largest Animal Rescue. She's the penguin scientist who was present at this rescue, and you can learn more about her at this link to her website. Dyan deNapoli's book has so much to tell about professionals and volunteers working with animals, and solving this crisis. It's recommended reading for any family with a young person interested in working with animals, or worried about how people can cope with resource emergencies.

There's a family in Colorado that was learning how to test their drinking water. Their daughter, Gitanjali Rao, wanted to find a way to test water reliably and quickly. While browsing the MIT website, this eleven-year-old came up with an adaption for technology she read about in an article. Her portable device tests for lead in water, which is a problem for many people and places. This story is a terrific read for people who are upset by reading all the news articles about undrinkable water in Flint, Michigan or on First Nations reserves.

These three brief mentions are just a little of the great news that can be found about young people using science to make the world a better place.