When grass gets harder to rely on, researchers are looking offshore.

A new study suggests cattle may be able to digest seaweed better than previously thought, according to a news release from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan.

Researchers studied how cattle gut systems responded when seaweed was introduced as a diet staple. Wade Abbott, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, said he wanted to find out if cattle could break down seaweed at all and which biological process made that possible.

Seaweed differs from grass and hay because its structure contains complex sugars that cattle did not evolve to digest. The release said breaking it down would normally require specialized enzymes not typically present in land-plant digestion systems.

The research team found cows fed seaweed showed a notable shift in their gut microbiomes. Certain bacteria increased in abundance and appeared to play a key role in breaking down the marine plant.

“We could finally see exactly how the bacteria crack the code of seaweed digestion,” Abbott said.

Abbott said the study helps explain how cattle might process seaweed by showing their gut microbes can adapt to an unfamiliar food source and activate new metabolic pathways.

“We’re only beginning to understand the genetic mechanisms that allow gut microbes to process these marine sugars,” Abbott said. “If we can map those pathways fully, the applications go well beyond cattle. We’re talking about a new framework for sustainable agriculture, one that embraces unconventional feed sources and works with the biology that’s already there, waiting to be activated.”

Read more from The Cool Down.