SOS: Sustainable Ocean Solutions

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Project Summary:

Currently two main problems are having irreversible effects on a local to global level: sargassum seaweed invasions and synthetic fertilizers. Massive Sargassum seaweed blooms washing up on Caribbean shores (in more than million tons) are creating mortality zones for local marine ecosystems, releasing CO2 and methane when decomposing, as well as creating a health and economic risk to these tourism-dependent economies. Deployment of cost-effective systems for Climate Change mitigation and adaptation require urgent implementation. On the other hand, synthetic fertilizer prices have more than doubled since 2021 and synthetic fertilizers are receiving bad environmental reputation given their proven contributions to Climate Change. Solutions are scarce for cost-efficient organic products to reduce fertilizer use/costs while increasing crop yields. The team is working to use the harvested sargassum seaweed as a source for producing organic biostimulant. A biostimulant is used to stimulate and improve the growth by increasing resistance to diseases and pets and advance the production and quality of products of plants. Through the development of value-chains not only environmental problems can be sustained but also social and economic developments can be propelled to the local communities with a direct possible reach to millions of people every year.

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