Abstract. Macroalgal beds have drawn attention as one of the vegetated coastal ecosystems that act as atmospheric CO2 sinks. Although macroalgal metabolism as well as inorganic and organic carbon flows are important pathways for CO2 uptake by macroalgal beds, the relationships between macroalgal metabolism and associated carbon flows are still poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated carbon flows, including air–water CO2 exchange and budgets of dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), in a temperate macroalgal bed during the productive months of the year. To assess the key mechanisms responsible for atmospheric CO2 uptake by the macroalgal bed, we estimated macroalgal metabolism and lateral carbon flows (i.e., carbon exchanges between the macroalgal bed and the offshore area) by using field measurements of carbon species, a field-bag method, a degradation experiment, and mass-balance modeling in a temperate Sargassum bed over a diurnal cycle. Our results showed that macroalgal metabolism and lateral carbon flows driven by water exchange affected air–water CO2 exchange in the macroalgal bed and the surrounding waters. Macroalgal metabolism caused overlying waters to contain low concentrations of CO2 and high concentrations of DOC that were efficiently exported offshore from the macroalgal bed. These results indicate that the exported water can potentially lower CO2 concentrations in the offshore surface water and enhance atmospheric CO2 uptake. Furthermore, the Sargassum bed exported 6 %–35 % of the macroalgal net community production (NCP; 302–1378 mmol C m−2 d−1) as DOC to the offshore area. The results of degradation experiments showed that 56 %–78 % of macroalgal DOC was refractory DOC (RDOC) that persisted for 150 d; thus, the Sargassum bed exported 5 %–20 % of the macroalgal NCP as RDOC. Our findings suggest that macroalgal beds in habitats associated with high water exchange rates can create significant CO2 sinks around them and export a substantial amount of DOC to offshore areas.

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To elucidate the factors determining the organic carbon (OC) sequestration capacity of seagrass meadows, the distribution of OC and the fraction of seagrass-derived OC in sediments of the temperate cosmopolitan seagrass Zostera marina meadows and surrounding habitats were investigated in relation to physical properties of sedimentary materials. On average, seagrass meadow sediments showed OC levels twofold higher than other shallow nearshore habitats. However, offshore sediments often showed greater OC concentrations than average seagrass meadow sediments. According to estimations of OC sources based on carbon isotope ratios, 8-55% and 14-24% of OC in nonestuarine seagrass meadow sediments and < 30 m deep offshore sediments, respectively, were assigned to seagrass origin. The OC concentration in seagrass meadow and offshore sediments closely correlated to the specific surface area (SSA) of sediment (r 2 5 0.816 and 0.755, respectively; p < 0.0001),with an average OC loading per sediment surface area of approximately 60 lmol m 22. In seagrass meadow sediments, the fraction of seagrass-derived OC was also greater in samples with a larger SSA, and the seagrassderived OC occurred preferentially in sediment grains that had a specific gravity exceeding 2.0, namely, in a form closely associated with sediment minerals. The OC concentration, the fraction of seagrass-derived OC, and the SSA were positively correlated to the logarithm of areal extent of individual seagrass meadows (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that the OC sequestration capacity of nearshore vegetated habitats is under the primary control of geophysical constraints such as sediment supply rate and depositional conditions. Vegetated shallow coastal ecosystems, including intertidal salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows have been ranked among the most efficient biotic systems for accumulating organic carbon (OC) on an areal basis (McLeod et al. 2011;Fourqurean et al. 2012). It is estimated that these ecosystems may contribute almost half of OC burial in the global ocean even though they cover < 2% of the ocean surface (Duarte et al. 2005). Recent interest has focused on the potential to incorporate these ecosystems, called "blue forests," into policies for reducing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. At the same time, there is increased concern about the possibility of CO 2 emissions caused by the decline of blue forest ecosystems, including the seagrass meadows (Pendleton et al. 2012;Grimsditch et al. 2013).High rates of OC accumulation in seagrass meadows are likely the result of specific ecosystem functions such as (1) extremely high primary productivity of seagrasses and associated microalgae, (2) efficient trapping of organic particles within the meadow sediment via its flow-regulation and bottom-stabilization effects, and (3) slowness of remineralization of OC within the meadow sediment due to the anoxic conditions that prevail (Duarte et al. 2013). Most of the OC stored in seagrass meadows exists as detrital OC derived from seagrasses...

In bioelectrochemical systems, the electrode potential is an important parameter affecting the electron flow between electrodes and microbes and microbial metabolic activities. Here, we investigated the metabolic characteristics of a glucose-utilizing strain of engineered Shewanella oneidensis under electrode-respiring conditions in electrochemical reactors for gaining insight into how metabolic pathways in electrochemically active bacteria are affected by the electrode potential. When an electrochemical reactor was operated with its working electrode poised at +0.4 V (vs. an Ag/AgCl reference electrode), the engineered S. oneidensis strain, carrying a plasmid encoding a sugar permease and glucose kinase of Escherichia coli, generated current by oxidizing glucose to acetate and produced D-lactate as an intermediate metabolite. However, D-lactate accumulation was not observed when the engineered strain was grown with a working electrode poised at 0 V. We also found that transcription of genes involved in pyruvate and D-lactate metabolisms was upregulated at a high electrode potential compared with their transcription at a low electrode potential. These results suggest that the carbon catabolic pathway of S. oneidensis can be modified by controlling the potential of a working electrode in an electrochemical bioreactor.