Tuesday, 12 April 2022

Sunscreen Lotions and Sea Grass

Mediterranean sea grass (Posidonia oceanica) is of great importance to a wide range of marine organisms (e.g. juvenile fish). The sea grass is also useful as it removes carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. In parts of the Mediterranean, however, the sea grasses are accumulating a range of UV filters from sunscreen lotions used by tourists (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/12/sunscreen-chemicals-accumulating-in-mediterranean-seagrass-finds-study). The Mediterranean sea grasses appear to be vulnerable to these chemicals, as they grow in shallow waters where lots of human activity takes place. The absorbed UV filters, affect the sea grasses' photosynthetic ability (UV is a wavelength of sunlight the plants use). This, in turn, impacts on sea grass productivity, which will obviously influence the whole ecosystem. It shouldn't, however, be too difficult to reduce the exposure of sea grasses to lotion pollution?

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