Seagrass matting efforts helping to restore the vital plant in the Indian River Lagoon
At Florida Oceanographic, researchers were joined by volunteers this week in attaching seagrass fragments to burlap mats, a step that helps get the vital plant back where it belongs.
“When you plant just the fragment, or the strand itself, it tends to get washed away with the tide," Winn explained. "It takes a while for these seagrasses to actually take root, so by attaching them to burlap material and fixing them with staples, skewers, we tried all sorts of things, but it actually allows them to become established, their roots to take place, and then they can finally branch out and propagate that way.”
