Journal
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
Volume 103, Issue 2, Pages 296-302Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12370
Keywords
aquatic plant ecology; blue carbon; burial; carbon sink; climate change mitigation; erosion; Oyster Harbour; Posidonia australis; restoration
Categories
Funding
- project CSIRO Marine and Coastal Carbon Biogeochemistry Cluster
- project Opera (EU FP7) [308393]
- project MEDEICG [CTM2009-07013]
- project EstresX [CTM2012-32603]
- mobility grant of CSIC [PA1003258]
- Gledden Visiting Fellowship of the Institute of Advanced Studies (UWA)
- PhD fellowship by the Government of the Balearic Islands
- ICREA Academia
- Generalitat de Catalunya [2014 SGR 1356]
- PhD grant of Obra Social 'la Caixa'
- two concurrent Australian ARC Linkage projects [LP100200429, LP1301000155]
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Seagrass meadows are sites of high rates of carbon sequestration and they potentially support blue carbon' strategies to mitigate anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Current uncertainties on the fate of carbon stocks following the loss or revegetation of seagrass meadows prevent the deployment of blue carbon' strategies. Here, we reconstruct the trajectories of carbon stocks associated with one of the longest monitored seagrass restoration projects globally. We demonstrate that sediment carbon stocks erode following seagrass loss and that revegetation projects effectively restore seagrass carbon sequestration capacity. We combine carbon chronosequences with Pb-210 dating of seagrass sediments in a meadow that experienced losses until the end of 1980s and subsequent serial revegetation efforts. Inventories of excess Pb-210 in seagrass sediments revealed that its accumulation, and thus sediments, coincided with the presence of seagrass vegetation. They also showed that the upper sediments eroded in areas that remained devoid of vegetation after seagrass loss. Seagrass revegetation enhanced autochthonous and allochthonous carbon deposition and burial. Carbon burial rates increased with the age of the restored sites, and 18years after planting, they were similar to that in continuously vegetated meadows (26.40.8 gC(org) m(-2)year(-1)).Synthesis. The results presented here demonstrate that loss of seagrass triggers the erosion of historic carbon deposits and that revegetation effectively restores seagrass carbon sequestration capacity. Thus, conservation and restoration of seagrass meadows are effective strategies for climate change mitigation.
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