Seagrass habitats
Seagrasses are powerful carbon sinks, vital food sources for dugongs and green turtles and serve as essential nurseries for prawns and fish.
We house Australia's largest seagrass research group and have more than 40 years of experience in seagrass research. We monitor, map, restore and research inshore seagrass meadows, collaborating with Traditional Owners, industries, and governments.
We are working with Traditional Owners to deploy temperature loggers to measure thermal risk to inshore seagrass, and developing a model to predict areas of seagrass most at risk of thermal stress from high temperatures.
Thermal risk for inshore seagrass on the Great Barrier Reef
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Monitoring, Community
We're working with Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidinji Rangers in a long-term partnership to map and monitor benthic habitats and the megafauna, and provide the tools and training to support Rangers in managing their Sea Country.
Building capacity of Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidinji Rangers
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Community, Monitoring
Our rapid visual surveys mapped 3,500 km² of benthic fauna and seagrass in five reef lagoons of the Coral Sea Marine Park, leading to further research on potential fish nurseries in deepwater marine vegetation areas.
Reef lagoon benthic habitat mapping in the Coral Sea Marine Park

Monitoring, Research
Scientists are equipping Indigenous rangers with drone survey skills, alongside helicopter and boat-based surveys, to map dugongs in connection to their seagrass habitats.
Local scale mapping of dugongs and seagrass habitats

Community
The project embraces the combined benefits of Indigenous Knowledge, on-ground monitoring, and science and management expertise to provide training for Torres Strait rangers and to report data needed for ecosystem management.
Torres Strait seagrass mapping, monitoring and research

Monitoring, Community
We monitor and assess the condition of inshore seagrass meadows across the Great Barrier Reef, providing long-term data essential for managing these habitats.
Monitoring seagrass health in the Great Barrier Reef

Monitoring
Following back-to-back floods, scientists undertook surveys to understand seagrass loss and its impact on dugong and turtles.
Post-flood monitoring of seagrass in Hervey Bay and Great Sandy Strait

Monitoring
Over four years, we will plant thousands of seagrass fragments and over half a million seeds, while tracking the return of fish species and measuring the blue carbon benefits.
Restoring tropical seagrasses and their ecosystem services

Restoration
We are using a range of methods to build a comprehensive map of seagrass across northern Australia in partnership with Indigenous Rangers and Traditional Owners.
Building a map of northern Australian seagrass

Community, Monitoring
We are investigating the amount of grazing in meadows by turtles and dugongs, and its potential to impact the seagrass.
Impacts of turtle and dugong grazing on seagrass meadows

Research