Seaweed

Japanese cuisine is one of the most diverse in the world and sushi or maki is now almost as popular as European bread or French fries. When one thinks of sushi, the mind inevitably goes to nori or seaweed. This combination of sticky rice and fish wrapped in a moss green leafy sheet is now consumed globally with much delight. Seaweed farms in Paje, Zanzibar (Shutterstock) “Nori is one of the most protein-rich seaweeds and is a key nutrient in the daily Japanese diet,” writes Vincent Doumeizel in his book, The…

New research has demonstrated that seaweed, long used as an indicator of coral reef health, may be providing misleading information. The study, which analyzed data from over 1,200 oceanic sites, suggests that different species of macroalgae react differently to contamination, potentially obscuring signs of reef stress and misdirecting conservation efforts.Scientists have been using seaweed as an indicator of coral reef health for decades.But what if the seaweed was misleading them?New University of British Columbia…

Seaweed farming is the fastest-growing force in global food production today. But while giant marine algae can produce tons of fuel and sustenance, scientists have recently pointed out that its ability to offset the climate crisis is largely unknown.To sink just 1 gigaton of carbon emissions a year, recent simulations suggest massive seaweed farms would have to cover 1 million square kilometers of the ocean's most productive areas.For comparison's sake, about 1.6 million square kilometers of US land is currently used for…

Some reports have also sparked fears of “flesh-eating bacteria” among the algae, but there is no evidence for this. When people come into close contact with rotting sargassum, they can experience health problems, including diarrhea, vomiting, and eye irritation, so it is sometimes more than just an inconvenience. Plus, while local authorities have spent millions removing sargassum from beaches, they have invariably extracted large volumes of sand in the process, accelerating coastal erosion.Given the issues caused by the…

In the same way, there are two major things we need to do to address climate change. We need to cut emissions—for example, by slowing down our use of fossil fuels. That’s akin to turning off the water tap. Then we’ll need to mop up the spill—that’s carbon removal, processes that aim to pull carbon pollution out of the atmosphere.  There’s a problem with the second part of this plan: our box of cleaning supplies is a bit bare. Researchers and startups are working on it, building demonstration projects for direct air…

A new generation of talented and sustainability-focused tech entrepreneurs are already dreaming up innovative ideas to shift our daily habits and tackle climate change. Over the past five years, the Battle of the Minds competition has called on students and recent graduates from across the globe to pitch and develop novel solutions to some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems. Together, country based teams compete in a pitch competition for the chance to win funding…

Global seaweed harvest. Maps of G-MACMODS annual potential harvest per unit area (b, c) of the preferred seaweed group (the type with the largest harvest in each grid cell; f, g). While G-MACMODS estimates biomass, we assume that carbon constitutes 30% of seaweed dry weight. White boxes correspond to regions depicted in Fig. 2. Zonally-averaged annual harvest for the preferred seaweed group, seaweed production of particulate organic carbon (POC) and…

“The industry is getting ahead of the science,” says Isabella Arzeno-Soltero, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, who worked on the project. “Our immediate goal was to see if, given optimal conditions, we can actually achieve the scales of carbon harvests that people are talking about. And the answer is no, not really.” Seaweed pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and then a significant amount is sequestered—potentially for millennia—when the plant matter eventually sinks down…

A “blob” of seaweed double the width of the U.S. that’s inching across the Caribbean and delivering loads of algae to Florida beaches is also carrying some unwelcome tourists: disease-causing bacteria. And the plastic debris we pour into the oceans may be making the situation worse. The bacteria belong to a genus called Vibrio, which includes more than 100 species. About a dozen of these can harm humans, typically by infecting open wounds or causing food poisoning when consumed. In a new study published on May 3 in the…

'Flesh-eating' bacteria have been found thriving on seaweed blooms and plastic pollution in the open Caribbean Ocean, and researchers worry the potential pathogens could come back to bite us.Vibrio bacteria are known to feast on marine plant and animal tissues on the coastline. When humans consume seafood or seawater infected with these pathogens, they can cause life-threatening illnesses like cholera. The species Vibrio vulnificus can even infect wounds, risking life-threatening destruction of surrounding tissue.Finding…