Tuesday, 08 November 2016 18:00

Seaweed?

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New Zealand's methane gas emission woes could be addressed by a knight rising from the seas.

A Canadian researcher at James Cook University in Queensland, Rob Kinley, has found the seaweed species Asparagopsis taxiformis reduced methane by 99% in a laboratory.

The seaweed species has a natural defence against predators in the ocean, and that mechanism has a direct relationship to the bug in the rumen of cows and sheep, says Kinley.

Livestock is one of NZ’s biggest climate change issues: the methane they emit makes up almost a third of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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