In addition to promoting oxygen production, these marine plants provide shelter for young fish and help fight coastal erosion. Scientists hope to see these plants develop in the Berre pond over the next ten years.
Kill two birds with one plant. Around fifteen European researchers accompanied by scientists from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region carried out an operation last week to plant 1,500 eelgrass plants in the Berre pond (Bouches-du-Rhône).
A boost for the environment, because these marine plants promote the production of oxygen, and can serve as shelter for aquatic organisms.
“Through their leaves, they will serve as a spawning ground and nursery, as a hiding place for juvenile fish,” explains Nicolas Mayot, scientific mission manager for the Public Interest Group for the Rehabilitation of Fish, to BFM Marseille Provence. the Berre pond (GIPREB).
Fight against coastal erosion
Around sixty years ago, 6,000 hectares of eelgrass supplied this lagoon with oxygen. But the gradual installation of industrialists around the pond has had a negative impact on biodiversity.
GIPREB scientists hope, with the establishment of these new plants in the pond, to revive this biodiversity.
“Once we have transplanted these eelgrass, it is necessary to see to what extent, on the one hand, the eelgrass themselves will develop and adapt to the environment, and on the other hand how they will influence the ecosystem in the broad sense,” explains Raphaël Grisel, director of GIPREB. “In the very short term, will the small fish, the juveniles, return to protect themselves in these eelgrass beds? « .
But the whole interest of eelgrass does not lie only in its production of oxygen and its role with fish. They also represent a means of combating erosion, which affects the Mediterranean coast.
“With their root system and their leaves, they trap sediments and attenuate swells, which will also limit erosion on the coast,” explains Nicolas Mayot.
In the long term, aerial photographs and drone flights will make it possible to distinguish the benefits of eelgrass on the coast. GIPREB hopes that 1,500 hectares of the Berre pond, or nearly 10% of the size of the lagoon, will be covered with eelgrass within five to ten years.
