WASHINGTON (AP) – Scientists have discovered the world’s largest plant off the coast of Australia: a seagrass meadow that has grown by cloning repeatedly.
Genetic analysis has revealed that the underwater fields of undulating green seagrass are a single organism covering 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) making copies of itself for 4,500 years.
The research was published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Scientists confirmed that the meadow was a single organism by sampling and comparing DNA from seagrass sprouts across the bed, wrote Jane Edgeloe, co-author of the study and marine biologist at the University of Australia. Western.
A variety of plants and some animals can reproduce asexually. There are disadvantages to being clones of a single organism, such as increased susceptibility to disease, but “the process can create” hopeful monsters “by allowing rapid growth, the researchers wrote.
Scientists call the weed meadow of Poseidon’s ribbon “the most widespread known clone on Earth,” which covers a larger area than Washington.
Although the seagrass meadow is huge, it is vulnerable. A decade ago, seagrass covered an additional seven square miles, but cyclones and rising ocean temperatures linked to climate change have recently killed nearly a tenth of the age of seagrass.
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