Carbon stocks in Norwegian eelgrass meadows across environmental gradients.

ABSTRACT: Seagrass meadows are well-known for their capacity to capture and store blue carbon in sediments. However carbon stocks vary significantly between meadows, spanning more than three orders of magnitude on both local and global scales. Understanding the drivers of seagrass carbon stocks could help improve strategies for incorporating blue carbon into management plans. Here, we measured sediment carbon stocks in eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows and unvegetated areas along the Norwegian coast, spanning wide gradients in temperature, wave exposure, water depth, salinity, and eelgrass biomass. Carbon stocks were generally higher in eelgrass meadows than in adjacent unvegetated areas, yet they displayed considerable variation (400 - 30 000 g C m^-2 at 50 cm sediment depth) even among n

SUBMITTER: Gagnon K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11502847 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature