Adopting a strategy that is all but unheard of in the sea, this seagrass produces an essential nutrient the same way peas do.
The meadows of luscious green seagrass that dot coastal regions around the world are gaining recognition as important marine habitats and carbon sinks, but there is still a lot we don’t know about how these marine plants live. For example, scientists have assumed that seagrasses, like many other marine plants, take up important nutrients like nitrogen directly from the surrounding seawater and sediment. But a new study shows that seagrasses actually use a technique to acquire nitrogen that is prevalent among beans, peas, and other legumes on land, but is exceedingly rare in the ocean: they have a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Read more in Hakai.