Methane Emissions in Seagrass Meadows as a Small Offset to Carbon Sequestration

Abstract

Seagrass meadows are effective carbon sinks recognized for their potential role in climate change mitigation (Fourqurean et al., 2012;Lovelock & Duarte, 2019;Mcleod et al., 2011). Seagrass meadows sequester carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) through photosynthesis (Van Dam et al., 2021) and trap allochthonous particles within their canopy (Gacia et al., 2002). Part of this carbon is then stored as biomass and as organic carbon in sediments for centuries and even millennia (Serrano et al., 2021(Serrano et al., , 2016. Seagrass meadows account for 10%-18% of the total carbon burial (27 44 Tg C yr −1 ) in the ocean, even though they cover only 0.1% of the global ocean area (Kennedy et al., 2010). In addition, about 5% of the particulate organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon produced within seagrass habitats is exported beyond the meadows and stored in the deep ocean (Duarte & Krause-Jensen, 2017). Seagrass meadows are considered an important blue carbon ecosystem that should be protected and restored to mitigate anthropogenic CO 2 emissions.