Love Rimurimu @ Stuff

Kate Green from @Stuff has been talking with the Love Rimurimu team.

There's a forest all around Wellington – you just can't see it.

Under the waves whipped up around the capital's coasts, and inside the harbour itself, seaweed is a habitat for marine life, a filtration system, and a natural carbon sequesterer.

But our seaweed is in peril as ocean temperatures rise due to climate change – and Wellington is right on the cusp of being too warm for certain types of seaweed to thrive.

Enter, the Love Rimurimu project.

The project sets out to discover how ocean acidification and temperature rise affects our integral seaweed species, and how we can stop their decline before it’s too late.

The seaweed is being tested at four different temperatures and acidities to see how ocean conditions affect growth. Image credit: Kate Green (stuff)