PTE Reading MCMA sample – Band 79 selections.

The passage

309 words · inside Pearson's ≤350 word limit for Reading MCMA · authored to match real-exam density and register.

Seagrass meadows are among the most productive and ecologically valuable habitats in coastal ecosystems, yet they remain far less recognised in public policy than the coral reefs and mangrove forests that share their environments. A single hectare of healthy seagrass can support tens of thousands of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, functioning as a nursery for many species that later migrate to open water. Perhaps more importantly, seagrasses trap and store carbon in the seafloor sediments beneath them at rates that, per unit area, exceed those of most terrestrial forests. Recent estimates place the total carbon locked in the world's seagrass meadows at approximately twenty billion tonnes. Despite this ecological importance, seagrass meadows have declined by roughly thirty percent globally since the late nineteenth century, and the pace of loss has accelerated in the past four decades. The three most consistently cited drivers are coastal nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff, direct physical damage from dredging and boat anchors, and reduced water clarity caused by suspended sediment from upstream deforestation and construction. Climate change contributes an additional pressure, primarily through warming events that trigger die-offs in tropical and subtropical meadows. Restoration is technically feasible but expensive and slow. Successful projects in the Chesapeake Bay in the United States and in Cockburn Sound in Western Australia have demonstrated that transplanted seedlings can re-establish meadows within a decade if underlying water quality is first restored. However, cost per hectare remains high relative to comparable marine restoration such as oyster reefs, and success rates fall sharply where nutrient pollution is not simultaneously addressed. Policy attention to seagrass has grown following the inclusion of seagrass meadows in national blue-carbon accounting frameworks. Australia became the first country to formally include seagrass in its greenhouse gas inventory in 2022, and several European Union member states have signalled they will follow before the end of the current decade.