DR SITI MARYAM YAAKUB
Head of Sustainability and Climate Solutions, DHI
While many marine ecologists gravitate towards “sexier” subjects such as whales and dolphins, Dr Siti Maryam Yaakub specialises in a very different marine species: Seagrass. If you’ve been following environmental news, you would’ve heard that seagrass is the next big thing in reducing carbon in the atmosphere. Just like forests, seagrass meadows absorb carbon, except the nondescript underwater plants actually do twice as good a job at storing carbon from CO2 as forests do. The carbon dioxide that’s captured and stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, and therefore removed from the atmosphere, is referred to as blue carbon. “Seagrass meadows have a charisma issue, so convincing people of their worth can be challenging. In Singapore, there is the added problem of water quality, so seagrass meadows here are unseen except during low tide,” says the 40-year-old, who is also the co-founder of citizen science group TeamSeaGrass, which monitors the health of seagrasses along Singapore’s shores. “Seagrass ecosystems are largely understudied and overlooked. [They] are very important ecosystems that support fisheries and contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change by absorbing and storing carbon,” she explains. “I would like for people, businesses and governments to invest in nature and in nature-based solutions. Habitats and ecosystems are the original sustainability solutions because they are self-sustaining. Investing in nature-based solutions, like seagrass, must be part of our approach towards achieving true sustainability, by undoing environmental degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change.”