Carbon stocks and accumulation rates in Red Sea seagrass meadows.

ABSTRACT: Seagrasses play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, acting as natural CO₂ sinks and buffering the impacts of rising sea level. However, global estimates of organic carbon (C_org) stocks, accumulation rates and seafloor elevation rates in seagrasses are limited to a few regions, thus potentially biasing global estimates. Here we assessed the extent of soil C_org stocks and accumulation rates in seagrass meadows (Thalassia hemprichii, Enhalus acoroides, Halophila stipulacea, Thalassodendrum ciliatum and Halodule uninervis) from Saudi Arabia. We estimated that seagrasses store 3.4 ± 0.3 kg C_org m^-2 in 1 m-thick soil deposits, accumulated at 6.8 ± 1.7 g C_org m^-2 yr^-1 over the last 5

SUBMITTER: Serrano O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6177483 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature