Nutrient Enrichment Increases Blue Carbon Potential of Subtropical Seagrass Beds.

ABSTRACT: Seagrass beds have potential as nature-based solutions to climate change because their high rates of primary production can bury large amounts of carbon. Yet, realizing their potential necessitates improved understanding of the mechanisms contributing to carbon burial, especially in the context of nutrient enrichment, a ubiquitous threat to seagrass beds globally. Leveraging a nine-year nutrient enrichment experiment, we tested how different nutrient sources, supply rates, and ratios altered mechanisms underpinning carbon burial. Nutrient enrichment increased aboveground and decreased belowground biomass but increased carbon production and turnover, particularly belowground. To inform conservation efforts, we showed that blade height and shoot density effectively predict belowground carbon

SUBMITTER: Shayka BF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12317336 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature