Carbon storage potential in England’s seagrass meadows: new paper published by Centre PhD student Mariana Lima

Seagrass meadows have increasingly been the focus of global research, due to the multitude of services provided by these ecosystems, including the capacity to sequester ‘Blue Carbon’ within their sediments and biomass, and the provision of habitats for commercially important and endangered fish species. However, frequent reports on the decline of their health and extent, have raised concerns on the efficiency of current protection and management, especially in the face of global climatic change.

The research project developed during my PhD aimed to provide evidence of the importance of intertidal seagrass meadows, mainly from sampling sites along southern central England, including Chichester, Langstone and Portsmouth Harbours and the Isle of Wight. Results showed that seagrass meadows from the studied sites are essential providers of carbon storage, comparable to estimated global sediment carbon stocks.  The research also provides robust evidence on the influence of environmental factors and human activities, such as climate change events, on their carbon storage and sequestration potential, which is essential for the development of effective governance and management. Now a paper entitled ‘Environmental drivers of sediment carbon storage in temperate seagrass meadows’ has been published in a special issue of the journal Hydrobiologia, Trends in Aquatic Ecology III, as part of my project. This paper contributes to global knowledge on the role of seagrass meadows as important carbon sinks by addressing one of the main uncertainties in seagrass research, which is the high variation in reported sediment carbon stocks globally. Results showed that seagrass meadows from the studied sites, had significantly different amounts of carbon stored in their sediments, mainly explained by differences in sediment characteristics like dry bulk density, sorting coefficient and proportion of fine particles. The paper suggests that sediment characteristics should be considered as important indicators for carbon storage potential in intertidal temperate seagrass meadows and sediment parameters should be taken in consideration when deciding on the scope and range of conservation projects for seagrass ecosystems.

I am delighted that my research is providing essential and novel information to support the inclusion of seagrass meadows in climate change mitigation programs, including policies aimed at protecting ‘Blue Carbon’.