Michaela Nesvarova explains that by involving the community, EU-funded researchers can restore marine forests and turn citizens into marine caretakers.
Beneath the deep blue seas of Tenerife are dramatic sea forests, shaped by ancient volcanic eruptions. The submerged lava tubes and jagged basalt layers create an underwater world, unlike the others.
Located just off the Spanish Canary Islands, this unique marine environment is full of life. Divers can encounter endangered sea turtles, elegant eagle rays, elusive sharks, and even whales. Surprisingly, a third of all marine mammal species on Earth have been discovered around Tenerife.
Isabel Peters, a marine biologist with professional scuba diving gear, glides through these bodies of water.
Peters is a senior Marine Corps biologist who organizes and leads diving trips to carefully collect samples and data from the seabed as part of an EU-funded research initiative called Ocean Citizen.
Marine forest
Marine citizens bring together leading research and marine conservation experts from Denmark, Germany, France, Israel, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain and the UK.
Their work, running until the end of 2026, focuses specifically on regeneration of marine forests, an underwater area home to sea grass, seaweed, sponge grounds, corals and soft corals known as Golgonians.
“Given the state of the world and the degradation of the environment we are witnessing, we have reached a point where conservation alone may not be sufficient,” Peters said.
Therefore, an active recovery in underwater life is something that the marine citizen team focuses on its efforts.
Their goal is to develop flexible and scalable models in the Atlantic five pilot sites, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Barents Sea and the waters within Denmark.
Unlike land forests, sea forests are rich and complex ecosystems that support diverse lives. These diverse marine habitats play an important role in maintaining marine biodiversity and resilience. It also plays an important role in the environment by supporting carbon storage.
“Sea forests build on complex biological relationships, not just clusters of species that live side by side,” says Juanita Zorrilla-Pujana, a Spanish marine biologist and environmental educator.
Turning point
As we know, these underwater ecosystems are significantly damaged by human activity and global warming.
“Our oceans are under stress,” said Zorila Pujana, head of science communications for marine citizens. “For centuries, we took everything from the ocean and nothing returned except plastic and pollution.”
Sergio Rossi, a marine scientist at the University of Salento in Lecke, Italy and coordinator of the Marine Citizens Team, also emphasized that we are in an era of deep ecological change.
“The seeds that have been here for thousands of years have disappeared.”
This shift leads to loss of biodiversity, depleted resources, and the collapse of complex food webs, ultimately putting fisheries-dependent communities at risk. Additionally, marine forests, which serve as natural barriers to storms and extreme weather, have also disappeared.
“It’s a big problem and you can’t foresee what it means in years or decades,” warned Rossi.
Quick action was required to protect the marine forests.
Working on five pilot sites, the Ocean Citizens team is studying a variety of ecosons at depths ranging from 25 to 100 meters above sea level.
Their aim is to design effective solutions for not only better understanding of ecosystems, but also to restore and protect local marine forests in a variety of conditions.
“It’s not just because you put corals in the water. That’s much more complicated,” Zorila Pujana said.
Each location faces its own specific challenges.
In Denmark, removing millions of stones from their aquatic habitat leaves some areas without substrate to calm the species. Norwegian seas suffer from an increase in sea urchin populations, which devour all of their paths.
In Spain, water is contaminated to such a degree that protected turtles can swim in dark sewer water, said Peters, based in Tenerife, who first witnessed the troublesome situation firsthand.
In Rossi’s case, degradation is happening very quickly, so it’s clear that you need to act quickly. “Our goal is to accelerate the recovery of these marine forests and create appropriate conditions for them to expand in already established regions.”
Citizens as underwater gardeners
However, restoring the sea forest is a major effort that scientists cannot tackle on their own. That’s why marine citizen teams seek help from not only marine biologists and experts, but also local communities.
This initiative introduces the concept of “the gardener’s ocean.” This is a community member who actively supports restoration projects. Some jump in to “plant” marine life on the seabed, while others help raise the creatures on land at aquariums.
Beyond ecological benefits, this approach should also help boost the local economy. Tenerife, for example, has developed a business model that will help tourists raise funds for recovery efforts.
Marine forests can also function as natural carbon sinks. Although the exact carbon capture potential is still being studied, Rossi estimates it ranges from 1.5 to 5 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year.
Transplant and artificial leaf
After two years of data collection and evaluation, the Ocean Citizen team is currently taking the next step. Proactively restore pilot sites.
Divers like Isabel Peter begin transplanting macroalgae, sea grass, gorgonians and black corals. In parallel, custom-designed artificial leaves are installed to support regeneration.
By 2026, the Ocean Citizens team aims to establish a flexible, replicable set of protocols to guide future repair efforts in Europe and beyond.
Still, as Zorrilla-Pujana pointed out, “The ocean has been a mirror of human behavior for centuries. Our work is just a part of a much larger solution.”
The research in this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon programme. The views of interviewees do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.
This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.
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