Vegetated habitats like mangroves, seagrasses and saltmarshes capture and store carbon and act as carbon sinks. The carbon captured and stored in these habitats, especially in the belowground sediments, is called blue carbon. We report the blue carbon storage potential of seagrass habitats from the lagoons of Agathi, Bangaram, Kavaratti, Kalpitti, Thinnakara and Parli Islands of the U.T. of Lakshadweep. Sediment core samples were collected in triplicate from 30 cm deep from six stations located in the lagoons and estimated the organic carbon content in the sediment samples. The mean C org ranged from 0.1863 (Bangaram) to 0.3453% (Thinnakara); while the dry bulk density was 0.9115 (Kalpitti) to 1.1174 g/cm 3 (Kavarathi). Of the six Islands studied for blue carbon storage, the Thinnakara lagoon registered the highest level of 0.9795 mgC/ha and the Bangarum lagoon showed the lowest rate of 0.3796 mgC/ ha. Very low organic carbon stock in these lagoons indicated an urgent need for restoring and reviving the seagrass meadows, which are shrinking rapidly.

It is essential to restore degraded seagrass habitats as they are among the major blue carbon ecosystems undergoing degradation at alarming proportions throughout the globe. As our earlier attempts at seagrass transplanting trials ended up in grazing by herbivores, fresh trials in enclosed rafts were initiated which resulted in an 80% survival rate. The results indicated the magnitude of overgrazing on seagrass shoots and the height of transplants after 37 days in the enclosed rafts was 105 mm registering a net height of 71.05±9.1mm, while in the exposed rafts the leaves of the transplants were found grazed and the final mean height was only 13.3 mm registering a net height of shoots far below its initial height. Any initiative to restore seagrass meadows in the degraded areas must be taken up under protected mode or the existing seagrass meadows should be allowed to recover on their own by preventing overgrazing and checking man-made interferences.