Venice’s landmarks teem with tourists — so many, in fact, that the city has had to implement restrictions, like banning guides from using loudspeakers. But just outside the famous canals and resplendent architecture sits an ecosystem that teems with less obnoxious forms of life: the Venetian lagoon. For millennia, its marshes have hosted a bevy of flora and fauna, and for centuries have protected the city from invasion by its enemies.Now, protecting this habitat, and others like it, can help protect people and the planet. Traipsing through the wetland and sampling plants, researchers identified a carbon-capturing powerhouse, known as sea lavender, of the genus Limonium. By restoring these biomes, conservationists would not only boost local biodiversity, but also ensure its ability to trap that planet-warming gas. “Salt marshes are not only sites of carbon sequestration,” said Tegan Blount, a geoscientist at Italy’s University of Padova, lead author of a new paper describing the research. “Their conservation also protects many other ecosystem services, which are vitally important from a local to global scale.”Aboveground, sea lavender is a s... Read more
