About This Project

Did you know that several acres of eelgrass have been planted in the San Francisco Bay in the last year? We are conducting some major habitat restoration out here! But, sometimes the transplanted eelgrass doesn't survive.

So how do we improve survival? We think microbial communities could determine eelgrass transplant success.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) creates rich habitats for marine life in coastal zones around the northern hemisphere. It's a native to the San Francisco Bay Estuary, where it provides a spawning ground for Pacific herring and nursery habitat for a variety of other fish and crabs. Because it is so ecologically important, we do a lot of eelgrass bed restoration in the Bay. While some of our transplants thrive and create new eelgrass beds, other transplants wither and die. We're not sure why, but there is evidence that the right group of microbes could help the plants survive.

To find these specific species of microbes, we will need to look at the DNA of whole communities of microbes, studying their genetic sequences to see which species are present when the eelgrass survives.

What is the significance of this project?

We can aid in the restoration of eelgrass habitat by identifying, isolating, and eventually culturing microbes essential to eelgrass survival. This would make future restoration efforts more successful and less costly in the long run.

Furthermore, this has large implications on the success of threatened local species, since eelgrass beds provide spawning grounds for a multitude of marine animals.

This means more efficient restoration, and more habitat created in the San Francisco Bay.

It also may lead to further studies on improving coastal restoration efforts locally and abroad.

What are the goals of the project?

We're already well on our way to getting this new data! This summer, we:

- collected sediment cores for microbial DNA analysis
- collected and processed the important sediment metadata
- started a greenhouse experiment to test what happens when you plant eelgrass transplants in sand from another site
-started my first DNA extractions and sequencing run prep

During this campaign, I will be posting updates as our work progresses - in real time! You will find out:

- what the preliminary sequencing data is looking like
- what happened with our greenhouse transplant test

And after the campaign?

- We'll find out which microbes are out there, helping to keep the eelgrass alive!