Organic carbon storage in sediments of seagrass habitats in the lagoons of Lakshadweep Archipelago, west coast of India

Abstract

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.

Seagrass restoration trials in Kavaratti Lagoon, Lakshadweep: Growth patterns of transplants and their impact on overgrazing

“…Recent studies on the capture and burial of carbon (Kaladharan et al, 2022) in six islands of Lakshadweep Atolls indicated poor rates when compared with that of the Indian Archipelago. This is considered mainly due to degraded seagrass patches.…”

New distributional record of 31 marine fishes from rocky reefs of Kerala: A case study with underwater visual census (UVC) method

“…It's found that the visual census method was effectively employed for the reef fish diversity documentation from the various parts of the country. From Lakshadweep Pillai 2002, 2005), the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Madhu and Madhu 2007;Rajaram and Nedumaran, 2009) and from islands off the central western coast states of Goa and Karnataka (Sluka and Lazarus 2004, 2006Zacharia et al 2008;Thomas et al 2011). Another version of UVC, the rapid surveys have an immense role in the ichthyofaunal diversity study especially in an ecosystem like rocky reefs which deserve a more conservative approach for biodiversity assessment (Rajan et al 2021).…”

“…The species is reported from Karnataka coast (Zacharia et al 2008). The species was previously listed out in the author's own study (Baiju et al 2016(Baiju et al , 2019.…”

“…The biodiversity and fish assemblages of Lakshadweep Islands with a species documentation of 177 species of coral reef fishes belonging to 30 families (Ajith Kumar et al 2012). Netrani Island on Karnataka coast with 92 fish species belonging to 35 families and 58 genera (Zacharia et al 2008).…”