Lina Mtwana Nordlund about our new letter in PNAS: “Seagrasses are really cool, they can reduce the abundance of bacterial pathogens from the water. This is great for seaweed farming BUT can be quite harmful for the seagrass!”
Fig 1 in Fiorenza et al 2024. PNAS Global overlap in suitability for co-cultivating seaweed with seagrass ecosystems. Suitability range of aquaculture for the seaweed Kappaphycus was determined in exclusive economic zones for each country using surface nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations (N:P ratio < 80:1) and then restricted by the thermal tolerance limit of Kappaphycus using a sea surface temperature tolerance range of 20 °C to 35 °C modified from (4). Seagrass ecosystem distributions were overlaid with the suitability of seaweed aquaculture to produce an overall global suitability map. The seaweed production dataset was synthesized using global capture production of Kappaphycus from 1950 to 2017. Published reports of disease affecting Kappaphycus are indicated by numbered points and represent nine reports in seven countries.
