Seagrasses are important keystone engineers in South African coastal environments, where they provide a range of critical services to both natural and human systems. However, seagrass ecosystems are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic impacts such as climate change and habitat loss and globally, as well as in South Africa seagrass cover is declining, seriously undermining ecosystem services. There have been repeated calls to investigate seagrass restoration to increase cover, biomass and ecosystem functions of seagrass populations. Previous research showed that success of restoration depends on a number of factors, including genomic and functional similarity between donor and transplant populations. In South Africa, there is a strong focus on ecological aspects and physiological performance of specific meadows, but the phenotypic and genomic responses to anthropogenic stressors are poorly understood.
Project SeaStore aims to provide critical information within the context of potentially restoring seagrass meadows in South Africa. Using trans-disciplinary approaches we generate novel information on all things seagrass to help support conservation and restoration. Our includes blue carbon, ecological genomics, impacts of microplastics and pollutants, seagrass restoration, micropropagation and mariculture, as well as seagrass-microbial interactions. Our broad approach is rapidly filling in key knowledge gaps, whilst also placing South Africa firmly on the global map of seagrass restoration.
Selected key papers:
Unsworth RKF, Sweet M, Govers L, von der Heyden S, Vergés A, Friess DA, Monfared MAA, Steinfurth R et al. (2025) Rethinking marine restoration permitting to urgently advance efforts. Cell Reports Sustainability,2: 100526
Bossert A, Watson K, Ndhlovu A, von der Heyden S. (2025) Ex situ mariculture can support the restoration of the endangered seagrass Zostera capensis.South African Journal of Science, 121: #19767
von der Heyden S, Mofokeng RP, Adams JB, Midgley GF, Pillay D, Watson KM, Boshoff B, Bossert A, Combrink C, Engelbrecht T, Govender S, Mokumo MF, Ndhlovu A, Searle A.(2024) Nine decades of research on Zostera capensis: from foundational science to conservation and resilience. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 748: 197 -212
Combrink CA, Henriques R, Jackson MJ, von der Heyden S. Conservation implications of strong population structure despite admixture in an endangered African seagrass. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater and Freshwater Ecosystems, in press
Ndhlovu A, Adams JB, von der Heyden S. (2024)Large-scale environmental signals in seagrass blue carbon stocks are hidden by high variability at local scales. Science of the Total Environment, 921: 170917
Mokumo MF, Adams JB, von der Heyden S. (2023) Investigating transplantation as a mechanism for seagrass restoration in South Africa. Restoration Ecology, 31: e13941
Boshoff B, Robinson-Smythe TB, von der Heyden S. (2023) The role of seagrass meadows in the accumulation of microplastics: insights from a South African estuary. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 186:114403
Ndhlovu A & von der Heyden S. (2022) De novo assembly and annotation of the transcriptome of the endangered seagrass Zostera capensis: insights from differential gene expression under thermal stress. Marine Genomics 66: 100984
van Wyk JW, Adams AB, von der Heyden S. (2022) Conservation implications of herbicides on seagrasses: sublethal glyphosate exposure decreases fitness in the endangered Zostera capensis. PeerJ, 10:e14295
Phair NL, Nielsen ES, von der Heyden S. (2021) Applying genomic data to seagrass conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation 30: 2079-2096
Phair NL, Toonen RJ, Knapp IS, von der Heyden S. (2020) Anthropogenic pressures negatively impact genomic diversity of the vulnerable seagrass Zostera capensis. (2020) Journal of Environmental Management 255: 109831