Seagrass blue carbon stocks and sequestration rates in the Colombian Caribbean.

ABSTRACT: Seagrass ecosystems rank amongst the most efficient natural carbon sinks on earth, sequestering CO₂ through photosynthesis and storing organic carbon (C_org) underneath their soils for millennia and thereby, mitigating climate change. However, estimates of C_org stocks and accumulation rates in seagrass meadows (blue carbon) are restricted to few regions, and further information on spatial variability is required to derive robust global estimates. Here we studied soil C_org stocks and accumulation rates in seagrass meadows across the Colombian Caribbean. We estimated that Thalassia testudinum meadows store 241 ± 118 Mg C_org ha^-1 (mean ± SD) in the top 1 m-thick soils, accumulated at rates of 122 ± 62 and 15 ± 7 g C_org

SUBMITTER: Serrano O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8154905 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature