“Picture a vast meadow the size of New York City’s 850-acre Central Park, but submerged and sprouting from the sea floor. Multiply that 88,000 times so it stretches from the tropics to the Arctic, and you have a lowball estimate for the current expanse of the world’s seagrass ecosystems.

Overall, seagrass habitats are contracting, buffeted by climate change, bad water quality and other woes. 

But not Halophila stipulacea. It’s been gaining ground since the Suez Canal opened in Egypt in 1869. Climate change, in fact, gave it a boost…

Willette estimates its spread at about 22 miles per year—incredibly speedy for a marine plant…

‘What’s interesting is there’s actually more seagrass in the Caribbean now on places like Dominica than there was 20 years ago,’ Willette said. ‘It’s because the invasive is occupying a place that was previously just open sand.’

…

More seagrass in places that were previously bare sand means more carbon sequestration. Halophila stipulacea is quite good at that—and might actually help other seagrass species, not just outcompete them.”

From Inside Climate News.