The ocean is one of Earth’s largest and most effective carbon sinks. With every wave, carbon is collected from the atmosphere, stored in marine life, plants, sediments and more — known as blue carbon.
Dr. Kristina Boerder, a scientist at Dalhousie, is researching eelgrass and its importance to Atlantic Canada’s blue-carbon stores.
The project, “Establishing the value of blue carbon to Nova Scotia: a case study,” involves researching why eelgrass is disappearing and how it can be restored. This project is supported financially through the Ocean Frontier Institute’s Seed Fund, which has enabled the initiative to blossom and thrive.
Exploring eelgrass in Atlantic Canada
Eelgrass, known by its scientific name Zostera marina, is a unique species of seagrass. It is the only marine plant with both shoots and rhizomes that live completely under the water. In Atlantic Canada, eelgrass species are found in underwater meadows along coastlines where they thrive in the shallow waters and soft sediments.
Dr. Boerder and research partners at Dal began exploring eelgrass in 2020.
“We paddled and snorkeled around [Owls Head] and found these lush, dense, healthy eelgrass meadows,” says Dr. Boerder. “I’ve snorkeled in a couple [meadows] around Nova Scotia, but I had never seen something like that.”
Researchers exploring the eelgrass meadows in Owl’s Head, Nova Scotia. (CERI, photo taken by Nicolas Winkler Photography)
In the ocean, seagrasses are responsible for storing nearly 10 per cent of the world’s carbon each year, even though they cover a mere 0.2 per cent of the ocean floor. The carbon travels through their roots and into the sediment, where carbon can accumulate vertically as the sea level rises — meaning seagrasses can continue to sequester carbon indefinitely if undisturbed.
A restoration initiative
Despite the ample eelgrass presence along Nova Scotia’s coastline, the amount of carbon it sequesters has yet to be quantified. Community Eelgrass Restoration Initiative (CERI) was established to help fill this knowledge gap and explore why eelgrass is disappearing around the province.
The OFI seed fund provided the foundation for the establishment of CERI and its research abilities by funding new research equipment, labs and training. CERI now has over 12 research sites across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
“By the third year, the OFI seed fund kicked in and that is what really enabled us,” says Dr. Boerder. “It was the first meaningful amount of funding that allowed us to plan in a proper scientific way.”
Scientists mapping the dense eelgrass meadows of Nova Scotia. (CERI, photo taken by Nicolas Winkler Photography)
CERI has four main initiatives throughout their project: mapping eelgrass locations; easuring eelgrass carbon sequestration; restoring eelgrass meadows; outreach and education.
Currently, CERI is focusing on restoring meadows around Nova Scotia. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the province’s eelgrass meadows. Researchers do not know how many meadows the province has already lost.
However, this novel eelgrass and sediment research is adding vital information to the growing scientific database, putting Nova Scotia on the map for its world-class ocean research.
A community effort
The project relies heavily on citizen scientists in communities to help gather knowledge and stories of past eelgrass meadows.
The team is heavily centered on a two-eyed seeing approach, ensuring that the Dalhousie researchers are an equal partner with the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq.
Community member participating in an eelgrass replanting workshop in Prince Edward Island. (CERI, photo taken by Nicolas Winkler Photography)
“Having such a diverse and engaged team really helps because the ideas and creativity with that is really helpful and inspiring to see,” says Dr. Boerder.
To accomplish its restoration goals, CERI is working with communities across Nova Scotia to replant damaged eelgrass meadows.
“We see that people really want to be part of a solution,” says Dr. Boerder. “In Nova Scotia, we use it like a gateway into marine conservation and restoration, which nearly every member of the public that I speak to has no idea that it’s possible.”
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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
