By Megan Sam
When researchers returned to Tyndall Air Force Base in September, just four months after installing bamboo barriers to protect seagrass from grazers, they found something striking: in some areas, the only seagrass left standing was inside the bamboo plots.
These early results showcase the success of a simple but effective strategy: using bamboo stakes to keep grazers out and give threatened seagrass room to recover. Building on a 2024 pilot project led by former Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS) postdoctoral research associate Beatriz Marin-Diaz, Ph.D., a 400-meter-long bamboo stockade was installed in May 2025, scaling up the approach with thousands of stakes designed to withstand strong currents.
The need for intervention became clear after Hurricane Michael breached a barrier island in 2018, accelerating erosion at Buck’s Beach, just off Tyndall Air Force Base. Grazing by sea turtles and manatees further depleted the seagrass, leaving large barren patches that the bamboo exclosures are now helping to restore.
“It’s a good example of why it’s important to understand cause and effect relationships in ecological systems,” Patrick Saldaña, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate at the CCS who currently leads the project’s field work, said. “Marin-Diaz recognized that grazers were weakening seagrass beds in an already altered environment. And through identifying that, she was able to develop a solution to at least temporarily mitigate that problem. And it’s been highly effective.”
When the CCS field team set out in May, their goal was straightforward: install neat, side-by-side plots with and without bamboo to test the method over time. But the shoreline had shifted so dramatically that much of the seagrass bed was already fragmented. The team — including Marin-Diaz, Saldaña, CCS Interim Director Andrew Altieri, Ph.D., students Julie Fernandez and Melanie Gomez, Director of Field Research Todd van Natta and research coordinator Patrick Norby — adapted on the spot, building plots of varying sizes, pairing each with a control, and protecting as much seagrass as possible.
This effort is part of a broader submerged shoreline project in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Naval Research Laboratory, and Jacobs. By combining living shoreline techniques with submerged artificial reef structures, the project aims to reduce wave erosion and offer a more durable solution to seagrass loss.
“The Nature Conservancy and the Center for Coastal Solutions at the University of Florida partnership has been underway for several years now,” said Katie Konchar, a TNC project manager. “Coming together in a project like this, where TNC can coordinate a large effort and bring in partners like the University of Florida — with expertise in oceanography, coastal engineering, and biology — gives us the edge to do applied science that supports long-term habitat resilience.”
Building on this work, the team is preparing a research paper to share results from the pilot project while continuing to track how quickly the seagrass meadow is changing. The Naval Research Laboratory is using sonar to map shifts in bed elevation and create detailed underwater terrain maps, while CCS researchers are measuring grazed and ungrazed plots with fine precision. In a rapidly changing meadow like Buck’s Beach, aerial imagery and satellite data can’t keep up, making these on-the-ground and underwater monitoring techniques essential.
Monitoring and maintenance of the bamboo exclosures will continue in the months ahead. Because bamboo is biodegradable — an advantage for the environment but a challenge for maintenance — the structures require periodic upkeep to remain effective. Researchers will be watching closely to see how these natural barriers can continue to give seagrass a fighting chance in a challenging environment.