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| Dugong feeding trails seen in seagrass meadows at Chek Jawa, May 2024 |
Singapore’s first seagrass restoration project aims to raise survival rate of carbon-storing plant
Shabana Begum Straits Times 30 Sep 2024
SINGAPORE – Seagrass meadows, the often-overlooked, carbon-storing sibling to mangroves, are set for a revival along Singapore’s coasts.
On Sept 27, the National Parks Board (NParks) and OCBC Bank said they will embark on Singapore’s first seagrass restoration project, with a focus on understanding the plants’ reproduction and finding ways to improve the success of transplanting seagrass at locations in decline.
OCBC has pledged close to $1 million to fund this three-year research effort, which will be helmed by NParks, the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory and the National University of Singapore.
The reproductive characteristics of tropical seagrass have been largely under-researched in South-east Asia, NParks said in a statement.
Singapore’s waters are home to 12 species of seagrass, the oceans’ only flowering plant.
Seagrass meadows are found in shallow waters off the coasts. In the north, they are found near mangroves, while in the south, they are found near coral reefs, predominantly around the Southern Islands.
The largest continuous stretches of seagrass meadows are found at Chek Jawa and Cyrene Reef, a submerged reef off Pasir Panjang Terminal.
In recent years, seagrass has been held in higher regard globally due to its ability to store carbon in the soil. The submerged plant can soak carbon up to 40 times more effectively than forests and store up to 18 per cent of oceanic carbon.
But more than 45 per cent of Singapore’s original seagrass cover has been lost to coastal development and reclamation over the last five decades.
These underwater fields are nurseries for juvenile fish, while serving as habitats for sea stars, seahorses, crabs and sea cucumbers, among other marine life.
Seagrass is also a key food source for sea turtles and critically endangered dugongs, which are occasionally spotted in the southern waters and Johor Strait.
In the project, researchers will experiment with innovative ways to transplant and anchor seagrass in Singapore’s coastal waters to find out which restoration techniques will work best.
This will help improve existing planting methods, which tend to have low success rates due to a lack of understanding of the factors affecting seagrass survival in challenging underwater conditions, such as those of Singapore’s waters, said NParks.
For example, conventional methods include taking a sand core containing some seagrass and transplanting it at another site. However, Singapore’s waters can be turbid, with some areas experiencing stronger currents, affecting the sediment’s stability and causing transplanted seagrass to be washed away.
To address this, scientists will use biodegradable mats made of calcium carbonate and coconut fibre to anchor transplanted species and stabilise the sediment.
“We also want to understand how we can improve the survivability of the restored seagrass. There is no point putting it out if they’re all going to go away within the next few months. You want them to persist, thrive and sequester carbon and bring back biodiversity,” Dr Samantha Lai, deputy director of biodiversity (coastal and marine) at NParks’ National Biodiversity Centre, said at the project’s launch at Fort Canning Centre on Sept 27.
Dr Siti Maryam Yaakub, senior director of the International Blue Carbon Institute, said: “Site and species selection are very important when considering seagrass restoration.”
The aim is to start restoring seagrass meadows within the first year of the project so there is time to track their progress. Suitable locations have not been pinned down yet.
One method of restoring seagrass meadows is by transplanting entire plants, which involves taking seagrass shoots from a healthy meadow and planting them on the restoration site.
Another method involves sowing seeds into the sand, which is cost-effective and easier to scale up. But as the seed production of local seagrass species is not well known, researchers will do aquarium experiments to trigger the flowering of seagrass species.
“By triggering this flowering, hopefully we can collect the seeds, germinate them for growth and study their survivorship. And then with time... we can scale up our seagrass restoration through seed-based transplantation,” said Dr Lai.
The project requires more hands on deck and, over the three years, members of the public and OCBC staff will be invited to help with parts of it. These include surveying existing meadows to understand the seagrass’ flowering and fruiting patterns, and carrying out transplanting at restoration sites.
Singapore’s plans to restore seagrass comes weeks before the COP16 UN biodiversity summit in Colombia.
Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a UN pact cemented in the previous summit of 2022, governments were urged to restore nature.
OCBC and NParks Announce Singapore’s First Seagrass Restoration Project to Study Seagrass and Enhance Conservation Efforts
NParks Media Release 27 Sep 2024.
- Pilot project will focus on ways to increase survival rate of transplanted seagrass and factors that will spur the plant’s reproduction rate
- This is the fourth climate action project by OCBC, partnering NParks, to enhance carbon capture and carbon storage efforts
Singapore, 27 September 2024 – OCBC and the National Parks Board (NParks) announced Singapore’s first seagrass restoration project today. Under the OCBC Seagrass Restoration Project, researchers from NParks and the National University of Singapore (NUS) will study the reproductive characteristics of seagrass, conduct a pilot seagrass restoration project, and develop and test innovative methods to improve the success of seagrass transplants. As part of this project, researchers will also study the ways to quantify the tangible and intangible benefits of seagrass restoration such as the increase in carbon sequestration and species diversity. Seagrass meadows are globally recognised as an important blue carbon habitat as they have the potential to store carbon up to 40 times more effectively than terrestrial forests. They are crucial to the environment as they provide coastal protection and habitats for marine biodiversity. Hence, findings from the three-year restoration project will contribute significantly to Singapore’s seagrass conservation and restoration efforts. The OCBC Seagrass Restoration Project will be fully funded by OCBC. The success of the project will help to enhance Singapore’s climate and ecological resilience in line with NParks’ vision to transform our island-state into a City in Nature, which aims to ensure a more liveable and sustainable home for Singaporeans.
OCBC has been partnering NParks since 2017 with its first climate action project to enhance habitats at Coney Island Park. This was followed by 2019’s opening of the OCBC Arboretum in the Singapore Botanic Gardens which conserves around 2,000 ecologically important dipterocarp trees, that can grow to be some of the tallest trees in Southeast Asia’s rainforests. The latest initiative was the project to establish about 9,000 mangrove trees in the OCBC Mangrove Park and its surroundings on Pulau Ubin. It is estimated that OCBC Mangrove Park, OCBC Arboretum and other regional reforestation efforts by OCBC, together allow for the absorption of more than 110 million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide.
Mr Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development & Information and National Development, said, “Conserving our biodiversity is crucial to transforming Singapore into a City in Nature. We have been actively restoring our forest, coastal, and marine habitats, while further strengthening conservation efforts for native plant and animal species. Our seagrass meadows, a significant part of Singapore’s rich natural heritage, provide a variety of ecosystem benefits – from providing food and shelter for marine species, to contributing to carbon sequestration and coastal protection. The collaboration between NParks and OCBC for the OCBC Seagrass Restoration Project marks an exciting advancement in our marine biodiversity conservation efforts, and the generous support of our corporate partners like OCBC plays an important part. I am very heartened by OCBC’s support towards our conservation and sustainability efforts over the years.”
Ms Helen Wong, Group CEO of OCBC, said, “As a nature-lover, I am pleased to launch another climate action initiative with NParks. Together with the OCBC Arboretum and the OCBC Mangrove Park, the OCBC Seagrass Restoration Project will go a long way in our carbon sequestration efforts. When we assessed projects with NParks to fight climate change, we want projects with big impact. Whether it is the dipterocarp trees at the OCBC Arboretum, the mangroves at OCBC Mangrove Park or seagrass with the OCBC Seagrass Restoration Project, they function as carbon sinks, all highly effective in carbon capture and storage. For this latest project, we will invite OCBC staff and members of the public to play the role of citizen scientists during the seagrass research. They have the opportunity to assist in the seagrass transplantation process and conduct surveys to record flowering in seagrass meadows. I would also volunteer myself for this very exciting project.”
Importance of seagrass restoration
Seagrass meadows are critical to the environment and marine life. They contribute greatly to carbon sequestration, habitat creation, survival of marine species, and coastal protection. Although seagrass meadows cover only 0.2% of the world’s ocean floor and seabed, they store up to 18% of oceanic carbon.
However, seagrass meadows are declining worldwide and continue to be impacted due to a variety of factors, including pollution, shoreline modification and climate change. More than 45% of seagrass meadows in Singapore have disappeared over the last five decades. Given the key role that seagrass plays in mitigating climate change, it is important to better understand and restore these plants to ensure that they continue to thrive in Singapore.
Objectives of seagrass restoration project
In order to effectively restore seagrass meadows, the study will focus on understanding the reproductive characteristics of tropical seagrasses, which has been largely under-researched in Southeast Asia. The project will also see researchers experiment with innovative ways to transplant and anchor seagrass in Singapore’s surrounding coastal waters. This will help improve current methods which tend to have low success rates due to a lack of understanding of the factors affecting seagrass survival in challenging underwater conditions such as that of Singapore’s waters.
If successful, the new transplanting methods will go a long way in improving the long-term survival of transplanted seagrass. The feasibility of these new methods will be evaluated based on seagrass growth and their survivability. These results and learnings will be vital to developing established procedures for future restoration efforts locally.
OCBC staff volunteers and members of the public will be invited to volunteer as part of the project, with more information to be shared when ready. During the research, these volunteers will conduct survey on the plants’ flowering process, assist in the transplanting procedures and more.