#seagrass

Daily painting 108/365

"One of the least respected but most important ecosystems on Earth are seagrass meadows, and a pioneering robotic solution is helping marine scientists restore these underwater gardens.

The ReefGen Grasshopper can plant dozens of seagrass seeds per minute. Not only is this faster than a human diver, but much safer as well.

It works by injecting a tiny slurry of sediment wrapped around the seagrass seed into the seafloor. After covering a growing plot of four seeds, the robot ‘hops’ about 30 centimeters away and starts again.

Despite covering a minuscule portion of the seafloor, seagrass meadows are estimated to hold 35-times more carbon than terrestrial forests—amounting to around 18% of the total carbon stock of the world’s oceans.

ReefGen’s founder Tom Chi dreamed up the idea after watching the degradation of coral reefs on his home island in Hawaii. The first iteration of the robot set coral ‘plugs’ onto existing reefs to help regrow them, but the technology was prohibitively expensive for wide-scale use.

Now however, broader selections of off-the-shelf parts have driven down the costs of manufacturing and maintaining underwater robots, according to Chris Oakes, CEO of ReefGen.

“Manual planting works, but robots are really good when things are dull, dirty, dangerous, or distant—the four Ds,” Oakes told CNN, adding that at the moment, Grasshopper is piloted with a controller by a human on the surface.

“Right now, we’re focused on the planting, the biology, and the mechanical aspects, once we’re confident that that’s all designed the right way, we will overlay more semi-autonomous features like navigation, so you don’t actually have to pilot it,” he said.

ReefGen has been able to not only expand into restoration of seagrass meadows, but also see its robots used in oceans around the world. This July, Grasshopper planted 25,000 seeds in Wales. In October, ReefGen teamed up with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institute of Marine Sciences to test various seed replanting methods out on the state’s declining seagrass meadows.

Oakes says that as cool and “flashy” as a robotic solution might seem, the most important factor in its success will be the long-term monitoring of the fields it’s replanting. Are they growing to maturity, are the seedlings dying off before then, will they live long enough to seed and germinate fields of their own, how do fields it plants compare to fields planted by hand??"

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1. A French city cut its marine pollution — and its seagrass bounced back

“Neptune grass [...] hosts up to a quarter of marine species in the Mediterranean, which is the only place it grows. [...] The lead author said the study shows the value of passive restoration: letting seagrass meadows regrow on their own after removing the human-caused drivers of decline, rather than focusing on replanting or transplanting the species. [...] In one [study area], coverage increased from 47% in 1986 to 94% in 2025. In the other, it jumped from 6% to 81%.”

2. Water and wildlife return to farmland ponds

“Two historical farmland ponds […] have held water throughout summer for the first time in more than a decade. […] Since the restoration in 2024, the company said wildlife had begun to return – including smooth newts breeding in both ponds. […] Surveys recorded ten additional aquatic plant species in each pond after the project was completed. […] Its Rooting for Wildlife scheme provides £80,000 to support community groups, schools, landowners and charities to improve ecosystems.”

3. All Anti-LGBTQ Legislation Defeated in Georgia as 2026 Session Ends

““Thousands of Georgians from over 60 counties came together to successfully defeat every last one. [… W]e made it clear that scapegoating LGBTQ+ Georgians is not a winning political strategy.” […] The Georgia Constitution prohibits the legislature from meeting for more than 40 legislative days each year, so the governing body will not resume for a regular session until 2027.”

4. Wind and solar may help Ecuador avoid repeat of its 2024 power crisis

“Ecuador's overdependence on hydropower [is] increasingly affected by droughts due to climate change. […] Instead of depleting the reservoirs to the last drop, wind and solar power would be used to bridge the failed rainy season. [… T]his would reduce the unmet demand in extremely dry years by 90%, without Ecuador having to import a drop of additional fuel.”

5. Once lost, now found: Five “missing” bird species rediscovered in 2025, offering hope

“Five “missing” bird species — not seen, heard or documented in the wild for a decade or more — were “found” in 2025[…. The “lost species” list is] an “early warning system” for birds not seen in a while [… which] helps “fill conservation data gaps”[….] The latest addition to the “found” list came in February 2026, when two French birders photographed a rusty bush lark (Calendulauda rufa), a species native to the Sahel, in Chad. The last time scientists encountered the bird was 94 years ago.”