Expanding Greenland seagrass meadows contribute new sediment carbon sinks
Marbà, Núria (Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats)
Krause-Jensen, Dorte (Aarhus University. Department of Bioscience)
Masqué Barri, Pere (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Duarte, Carlos M.. (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	The loss of natural carbon sinks, such as seagrass meadows, contributes to grenhouse gas emissions and, thus, global warming. Whereas seagrass meadows are declining in temperate and tropical regions, they are expected to expand into the Arctic with future warming. Using paleoreconstruction of carbon burial and sources of organic carbon to shallow coastal sediments of three Greenland seagrass (Zostera marina) meadows of contrasting density and age, we test the hypothesis that Arctic seagrass meadows are expanding along with the associated sediment carbon sinks. We show that sediments accreted before 1900 were highly 13C depleted, indicative of low inputs of seagrass carbon, whereas from 1940's to present carbon burial rates increased greatly and sediment carbon stocks were largely enriched with seagrass material. Currently, the increase of seagrass carbon inputs to sediments of lush and dense meadows (Kapisillit and Ameralik) was 2. 6 fold larger than that of sparse meadows with low biomass (Kobbefjord). Our results demonstrate an increasing important role of Arctic seagrass meadows in supporting sediment carbon sinks, likely to be enhanced with future Arctic warming.
Grants:	Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017/SGR-1588 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MDM-2015-0552 European Commission 308393
Note:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Scientific reports, Vol. 8 (September 2018) , p. 14024, ISSN 2045-2322

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-32249-w
PMID: 30232387

8 p, 1.2 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
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