Research(design of the first topic)
At the very beginning, in May, we entrusted our PI, Fanglin Luo, who was on a business trip in Guangxi, to visit the Guangxi Institute of Oceanology and the Guangxi Mangrove Research Center in Beihai to conduct some investigations which help us design our topic. We asked local researchers about ecological protection and environmental awareness, etc. From these scholars dedicated to marine ecological protection, we learned that the current marine ecology has suffered from industrial pollution, overfishing, and illegal exploitation for many years, which makes the current restoration efforts have not achieved particularly good results. We believe that as high school students with social awareness and also wanting to contribute to ecological issues in the future, we decided to work on some related topic of ecological restoration and protection. Therefore, we have done many investigations and researches on the ecology and finally determined a basic but very important part in ecological restoration, to help restore the seagrass ecology and prevent seagrass from pollution.
At the same time, through a conversation with researcher Chen Mo from the Guangxi Academy of Sciences, we also learned that illegal exploitation are currently one of the most difficult problems to solve in ecological restoration. Because lawbreakers will exploit sea sand and harvest illegally during stormy weather, it makes it difficult for the patrolling marine police to arrest them in stormy weather. Therefore, we also expect to makes some unique hardware designs so that we can help the local marine police catch criminals.
Hence, a story about how to help seagrass live away from sex hormone pollution was invented.
Interview(test our topic with expert)
We are honored to invite Researcher Chen Weilin from the Third Institute of Oceanography of China. His current research topic is on seagrass restoration and seagrass bed fish. From this interview, we learned that the topic initially designed by us, to help seagrass stay away from sex hormone pollution, is not r. Although there are related studies indicating that sex hormones can hinder root development in plants, there are no studies showing that sex hormone pollution in seawater will affect seagrass development. Moreover, the pollution problem of sex hormones in seawater has not been confirmed by relevant data.
Q:To what extent is the seagrass ecosystem in the current four major oceans (Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean) being damaged?
A：Seagrass is mainly distributed in tropical and tropical shallow seas, and there is no seagrass distribution along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Existing research is not specific to a particular ocean but is based on a global scale. Specific oceans involve many countries and it is impossible to calculate the extent of the damage. The recognized data shows that since the 1980s, the global seagrass area has decreased by about 29%, and the annual decrease rate is about 1% - 7%.
Q: In which country/region/sea area is the seagrass ecosystem most severely damaged?
A: Some countries in Africa do not conduct surveys, while Australia attaches great importance. China's seagrass ecosystem damage ranks among the highest, because some large-scale coastal projects in China, such as land reclamation, will damage seagrass. At the same time, the country does not have a high degree of seagrass planting because seagrass receives less attention compared to mangroves and corals. The latest data shows that more than 80% of the seagrass beds along the coast of China have disappeared.
Q: What are the reasons for the damage to these seagrass ecosystems?
A: There are many reasons such as nearshore fishery activities, destructive excavation, land reclamation, etc. Specific examples include: Using shovels or high-pressure water guns in the North Sea to flush out sandworms from seagrass beds; Using rake to dig shellfish on seagrass beds in Hainan; Excessive discharge of sewage from nearshore aquaculture farms. Typhoons can uproot seagrass, and the sediment brought can affect the photosynthesis of seagrass. Global warming and high temperatures can affect the enzymes and metabolism of seagrass. There is a tall and well-rooted plant called Spartina alterniflora, which has an advantage when competing with seagrass.
Q: What problems have been caused by the damage to these seagrass ecosystems?
A: Impact on marine life. Seagrass is a foraging place for many marine organisms. Dugongs eat 40kg of seagrass a day. Due to habitat destruction and poaching and other behaviors, the dugong was declared functionally extinct in China in 2022. In the north (Shandong), some swans feed on insects in seagrass beds. Benthic organisms use seagrass as a food source, marine organisms lay eggs in seagrass beds, and fish larvae live in seagrass beds. Some small fish have the behavior of mimicking seagrass, and once the seagrass is damaged, the mimicry will be exposed. At the same time, seagrass has well-developed roots and grows on silt or sandy sediments. Once they are damaged, it will lead to soil erosion. Seagrass can also improve the transparency of water bodies and has a great impact on carbon emissions (carbon storage accounts for 10% - 15% of the global total).
Q: What are the impacts of these seagrass ecosystems on marine organisms? Mainly on what kind of animals? What kind of harm has been caused?
A: See above
Q: Regarding the damage to the seagrass ecosystem in the North Sea, what response measures has the local government taken?
A: The government has issued regulations to prohibit the use of high-pressure water guns for fishing aquatic products. Protected areas have established management stations and law enforcement teams responsible for patrolling at sea and onshore. Use radar or unmanned aircraft to monitor protected areas. The most important thing is to provide villagers with sources of income to enable them to successfully transform and no longer damage seagrass beds by digging sandworms.
Q:Has there been any consideration of using technologies such as genetic engineering/biological engineering to restore seagrass ecosystems at present?
A:Some people are doing tissue culture, but there has been no progress, perhaps because the cultivation of marine plants is more difficult than that of freshwater plants. Even fewer people are doing gene editing, and seagrass receives less attention.
Q:What is the government's attitude towards restoring seagrass ecosystems through technologies such as genetic engineering/biological engineering?
A:The government has a positive attitude, and the attention to seagrass is also increasing. China aims to achieve the carbon neutrality goal by 2026, and the restoration of seagrass beds is an important ecological solution. The ecological niche of seagrass is very narrow, the area where it can survive is small, and the risk of invasion and overgrowth is relatively small.
Learn from the interview
Through this interview, we decided to revise our research . Eventually, with the help of Researcher Chen, we learned that other phenolic compounds, such as phenol, are more fatal to seagrass. Moreover, phenolic compounds can also have a significant physiological impact on other organisms on the seabed. We conducted new investigations and verifications and confirmed the correctness of new topic. Therefore, we changed our topic to helping the seabed ecology reduce the impact from phenolic pollutants.
Online Survey
Just as the situation described by the researchers engaged in ecological restoration and protection in Guangxi Province, the behaviors that cause the most unbearable ecological damage in Beihai are usually committed by who are not living locally. Because people living nearby the sea have the tradition of relying on the ocean for survival and are more inclined to protect the ocean. A very interesting idea is emerged. Farmers rely on the land and fishermen rely on the ocean, so both farmers and fishermen respect environmental protection. However, this ideology has persisted for over 2,000 years. With the advancement of modern industrial development and education, do outsiders not have the awareness of protecting the ocean? At the same time, we are also curious about that the government have to invest funds in governing marine pollution, and people who do not live by the sea are not affected by ocean pollution. How do people living in cities far away from the ocean view the issue of marine pollution and ecological governance? Therefore, we designed this questionnaire.
Survey Result
1、Public understanding of marine ecological environment problems: The survey results indicate that most interviewees have a certain understanding of marine ecological environment problems. Some of them are very concerned, but some people do not understand or have only heard of marine ecological environment problems.
2、Cognition of marine pollution: Interviewees have a certain understanding of various types of marine pollution, especially familiar with heavy metal pollution, petroleum pollution, domestic waste pollution, etc., but have relatively less understanding of phenolic organic pollution, hormone pollution, etc.
3、Attitude towards the government's governance of marine pollution: The vast majority of interviewees support the government to take more action to govern marine pollution and call on the government to strengthen relevant policies and measures.
4、Cognition and views on gene editing technology: Most interviewees have little knowledge of the information and knowledge related to gene editing technology and have doubts about its application maturity in the governance of marine pollution, but some still hold a positive attitude.
5、The importance of personal environmental protection responsibility and public education: Most interviewees believe that personal environmental protection responsibility is important, and also believe that public education is helpful in reducing marine pollution, and call for strengthening relevant education and publicity.
6、The necessity of paying attention to marine pollution: Although some interviewees are not bordering the ocean, more than half of them still believe that as non-bordering residents, they should also pay attention to marine pollution problems and believe that more resources should be invested in governing marine pollution.
Overall, the survey results show that most respondents have a certain cognition of marine pollution problems, support the government's governance measures, but have doubts about the application of emerging technologies such as gene editing technology. At the same time, they also believe that individuals and public education play an important role in reducing marine pollution. It is recommended to strengthen public education, improve people's cognition of marine environmental problems, promote more people to participate in environmental protection actions, and jointly protect the marine ecological environment.
Education
In order to promote and disseminate the significance of ecological protection and the concept of synthetic biology to the public and young people, we held a science lecture at Panyu Experimental Middle School. The theme of the lecture was "Marine Ecological Protection and Our Actions". In this lecture, we also introduced the founding history and concept of iGEM to the students. We introduced our QS-FMI synthetic biology solution by describing the current problems faced by marine ecology. Illustrate the positive impact of synthetic biology for human society through examples.
Communication
As a high school team participating in iGEM for the first time, communicating with other teams is very important. It is very helpful for us to understand the competition comprehensively, learn more about synthetic biology, and share competition experience. At the same time, communication is also a very important part of flourishing iGEM community. Therefore, we invited NWU-CHINA and Coral Cola (the iGEM teams of HKUST (GZ)) as our communication partners. During the communication, we discussed the progress of each project, technical solutions, shortcomings and participating experience.
Online Communication with NWU_CHINA
Communication meeting with Coral Cola
The laboratories of QS-FMI and Coral Cola are both in Nansha, which gives us the opportunity to communicate face to face. In this communication, we provided our views on the choice of technical pathways; we shared our thoughts on how to balance the feasibility and innovation of synthetic biological pathways. Compared with the viewpoints at the technical level, we have gained very good experience in non-technical communication. We figure out very good team management experience from the construction of our teams and plan to verify method in iGEM next year.