Seaweed
Seaweed or macroalgae refers to several species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of red, brown, and green macroalgae. Marine algae species such as kelps provide essential nursery habitat for fisheries and other marine species and thus protect food sources; ocean algae species from seaweeds to planktons play a vital role in carbon capture, producing up to 90 percent of the planet's oxygen. Understanding these roles provides guiding principles for conservation and sustainable use of seaweeds to take precedence over industrial exploitation. Mechanical dredging of kelp, for instance, destroys the resource and dependent fisheries. Certain species of seaweed are valuable for nutrition, biomedicine, bioremediation, and other uses.
Zostera muelleri
Seagrasses are a flowering plant species, not to be confused with seaweed, which do not form flowers, fruits, and seeds to reproduce. Seagrasses are important to the marine ecosystem for many reasons. For one, they provide food, homes, and breeding grounds to a variety of marine species. Secondly, meadows of seagrass are important carbon reservoirs or sinks, sequestering 10-18% of the ocean's carbon accumulation for long-term storage. Seagrasses also enhance sediment accretion, and protect coastlines from destructive wave energy.