Revegetation Strategies for Pioneer Seagrass

Restoration practitioners are always striving to find the best practice for revegetation - is it better to seed, plant plugs, transplant entire plants, or something else entirely? 

A team of scientists aimed to add to this ever growing field of research by analyzing different planting methods for a pioneer seagrass species in Mozambique. 

You may think to yourself, this is a very specific plant in a very distant place, but never fear because no matter the specifics of a project, there are often results that can be applied to similar plants or places in other parts of the world. 

The project in Mozambique explored the efficacy of two planting techniques - (a) plugs from a donor seagrass meadow, and (b) single shoots of seagrass. 

1. The plug method - researchers harvested a group of seagrass shoots with attached soil, leaving the roots intact. Imagine a tomato plant start, it comes out of the container with soil attached and you handle very few roots. This technique is considered less stressful for the plant but more labor intensive and expensive. 

2. The single shoot method - individual shoots are removed from any attached soil and planted in the restoration site. Imagine a bareroot plant, like when you’re weeding Dandelions and you pull out the big taproot with no soil attached. While less expensive this method is more stressful on the plant due to the intensive handling of the roots. 

After sixteen months of monitoring vegetation recovery, the researchers found that there was establishment of seagrass communities using both methods, but that the plugs performed better than bareroot shoots. They attributed this success to the intact root systems and soil of the plugs which likely improved their establishment and survival rate. 

While the research targeted revegetation of seagrass communities, the findings of the study have larger implications as it provides compelling evidence that while more labor intensive, sourcing and planting material with intact roots as opposed to bareroot material is critical in vegetation restoration.

Many of our Montana and Western US natives, particularly the wildflowers and shrubs, have very sensitive roots and are best planted as plugs - hence why we at Great Bear focus on root-tight plants in containers instead of bareroot products. While bareroot trees and shrubs are less expensive, when you purchase and plant a plug you are in fact saving money in the long run with less maintenance and a higher chance of planting success.

Cossa, Damboia, et al. "Restoring Halodule uninervis: evaluating planting methods and biodiversity." Restoration Ecology (2025): e14382.