Factors Influencing Carbon Stocks and Accumulation Rates in Eelgrass Meadows Across New England, USA
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Factors Influencing Carbon Stocks and Accumulation Rates in Eelgrass Meadows Across New England, USA A. B. Novak 1 & M. C. Pelletier 2 & P. Colarusso 3 & J. Simpson 4 & M. N. Gutierrez 2 & A. Arias-Ortiz 5,6 & M. Charpentier 7 & P. Masque 5,8,9,10 & P. Vella 11 Received: 7 May 2019 / Revised: 13 April 2020 / Accepted: 30 April 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Increasing the protection of coastal vegetated ecosystems has been suggested as one strategy to compensate for increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere as the capacity of these habitats to sequester and store carbon exceeds that of terrestrial habitats. Seagrasses are a group of foundation species that grow in shallow coastal and estuarine systems and have an exceptional ability to sequester and store large quantities of carbon in biomass and, particularly, in sediments. However, carbon stocks (Corg stocks) and carbon accumulation rates (Corg accumulation) in seagrass meadows are highly variable both spatially and temporally, making it difficult to extrapolate this strategy to areas where information is lacking. In this study, Corg stocks and Corg accumulation were determined at 11 eelgrass meadows across New England, representing a range of eutrophication and exposure conditions. In addition, the environmental factors and structural characteristics of meadows related to variation in Corg stocks were identified. The objectives were accomplished by assessing stable isotopes of δ13C and δ15N as well as %C and %N in plant tissues and sediments, measuring grain size and 210Pb of sediment cores, and through assessing site exposure. Variability in Corg stocks in seagrass meadows is well predicted using commonly measured environmental variables such as grain size distribution. This study allows incorporation of data and insights for the northwest Atlantic, where few studies on carbon sequestration by seagrasses have been conducted. Keywords Seagrass . Blue carbon . Carbon sequestration . New England
Introduction The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased from 280 to 410 ppm since pre-industrial times
and is expected to increase to 990 ppm by the end of this century. The accelerated increase of CO2 is primarily due to anthropogenic activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the modification of land use for agriculture and deforestation
Communicated by Just Cebrian Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00754-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * A. B. Novak [email protected] 1
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Ecosystem Science Division, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
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General Dynamics Corporation, Narragansett, RI, USA
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School of Science and Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia 6027, Australia
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Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Earth and Environment
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