Seagrasses play a crucial role in the health and resilience of Florida’s coastal ecosystems. They provide nursery habitats for keystone species and stabilize shorelines and sediments. Seagrasses contribute significantly to environmental health by filtering excess nutrients from the water (which improves water quality and reduces harmful algal blooms), capturing and storing carbon dioxide (a process known as carbon sequestration that helps mitigate climate threats), and stabilizing coastal ecosystems (enhancing overall resilience to storms and erosion). Yet, these underwater meadows are vanishing at an alarming rate—approximately 7% per year—due to human activities, natural stressors, and impacts of a changing climate.

Recognizing the urgency for innovative solutions to seagrass meadows depleting globally at alarming rates, the Florida Legislature and Governor established the Seagrass Restoration Technology Development Initiative in 2023 through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), with Mote Marine Laboratory leading this groundbreaking effort.

The goal of this groundbreaking Initiative is to develop, test and implement innovative, effective, cost-efficient, and environmentally sustainable technologies and approaches for restoring coastal seagrass ecosystems. The Initiative is a partnership between Mote, the DEP Aquatic Preserve Program, and the University of Florida. Mote serves as the lead administrative component to achieve the goals of the Initiative and create a 10-year Florida Seagrass Restoration Plan.

The Initiative is modeled after the success of the Red Tide Mitigation and Technology Development Initiative, a first-of-its-kind partnership between the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute and Mote Marine Laboratory to develop technologies and approaches to control and mitigate red tide and its impacts.

The Seagrass Restoration Technology Development Initiative is a collaborative and coordinated effort among public and private research entities to develop restoration technologies. It aims to address the loss of seagrass and the cascading ecological and economic impacts of that loss on communities across Florida. As part of this effort, Mote is constructing and managing Florida's primary seagrass genetic library, serving as a hub for statewide collaboration.

In 2024, Mote completed construction on a state-of-the-art greenhouse, which will serve as a cornerstone for seagrass research efforts, enabling scientists, from across florida and around the world, to conduct experiments that replicate real-world stressors such as warming temperatures, reduced salinity, turbidity, grazing, and sulfides. By identifying and cultivating seagrass genotypes resilient to these challenges, Mote is laying the groundwork for long-term restoration success.

“The development of the new Seagrass Restoration Technology Development Initiative and Mote’s new Seagrass Ecosystem Restoration Research Program represents a monumental advancement of technology to restore and protect Florida’s seagrass meadows,” said Dr. Michael P. Crosby, President & CEO of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium. “This program highlights Mote’s leadership in the marine research community, exemplified by our early recognition of the critical role of seagrass and our dedication to advancing its preservation through innovative, science-based restoration efforts.”

Mote postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Dominique Gallery, is playing a lead role in Mote’s Seagrass Ecosystem Restoration Research Program (SERRP), which is designed to tackle these challenges head-on by blending advanced genetic science with practical restoration techniques, a similar approach to Mote’s groundbreaking coral restoration strategies.

Dr. Gallery is an accomplished researcher specializing in genetic and genomic approaches to marine conservation, will generate genetically resilient seagrass capable of natural reproduction in land-based nurseries, in-water nurseries, and large-scale gene banks. Dr. Gallery brings extensive expertise in applying population genetics techniques—previously utilized in coral research—to the emerging field of seagrass restoration.

Since the Initiative's inception, Mote has successfully leveraged funding from federal grants and philanthropic support to drive critical advancements in seagrass restoration. Mote contracted eight groundbreaking projects in summer 2024 and released a second competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) in December.