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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biogeochemistry
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1371162

Quantifying sedimentary seagrass 'blue carbon' within seagrass meadows on Turneffe Atoll, Belize

Provisionally accepted
Stacey L. Felgate Stacey L. Felgate 1,2,3*Richard Sanders Richard Sanders 2,4Valdamar Andrade Valdamar Andrade 5Christopher D. Barry Christopher D. Barry 6Hannah Brittain Hannah Brittain 2Stephen Carpenter Stephen Carpenter 2Abel Carrias Abel Carrias 7Eliceo Cobb Eliceo Cobb 5Chris Evans Chris Evans 6James Hunt James Hunt 2Anna Lichtschlag Anna Lichtschlag 2Daniel J. Mayor Daniel J. Mayor 2,8Kate Peel Kate Peel 2David Price David Price 2Freya Radford Freya Radford 9Arlene Young Arlene Young 10Claire Evans Claire Evans 2
  • 1 The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • 2 Ocean BioGeosciences, National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
  • 3 School of Ocean and Earth Science, Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
  • 4 Norwegian Research Institute (NORCE), Bergen, Hordaland, Norway
  • 5 Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA), Belize City, Belize
  • 6 UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), Bangor, United Kingdom
  • 7 Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Belize, Belmopan, Cayo District, Belize
  • 8 University of Exeter, Exeter, England, United Kingdom
  • 9 University of the West of England, Bristol, England, United Kingdom
  • 10 Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute (CZMAI), Belize City, Belize

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Seagrass sediments are important 'blue carbon' reservoirs which store climatically significant quantities of organic carbon (Corg) at the global scale. Seagrass meadows that overly these sediments also provide a range of critical ecosystem services including shoreline stabilization, storm surge protection, and fisheries nursery grounds. However, the controls over accumulation and the sources of organic C to these sediments beds are highly variable and poorly understood with the relative importance of hydrodynamic setting, species composition and canopy density being unclear. Here we address these questions using the report the first observation-based estimates of Corg stocks and provenance on Turneffe Atoll, Belize, using made via remotely-sensed habitat extent, local Corg data and isotopic data. Sedimentary Corg was highest in sediments underlying the most sheltered meadows and decreased with increasing exposure to wind and wave energy with the seagrass meadows in the central lagoon containing an extensive deposit of mangrove derived organic carbon, stabilized and protected by the overlying seagrass meadow. The influence of species composition appeared weak with the ubiquitous species T. testudinum occurring across a wide range of hydrodynamic regimes ranging from the most sheltered to the most energetic and being associated with a wide range of sedimentary organic C concentrations. and were not influenced by seagrass canopy cover. Importantly from the perspective of remote sensing, org C concentrations were unrelated to canopy density. We hypothesise that this decoupling of organic C concentration from seagrass canopy cover reflects a much longer timescale for carbon storage in the sediments than the lifespan of the seagrass plants themselves and /

    Keywords: Blue carbon, seagrass, organic carbon, Sediment carbon, Stable isotopes, Mangroves, atoll, Belize Font: Not Italic

    Received: 15 Jan 2024; Accepted: 11 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Felgate, Sanders, Andrade, Barry, Brittain, Carpenter, Carrias, Cobb, Evans, Hunt, Lichtschlag, Mayor, Peel, Price, Radford, Young and Evans. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Stacey L. Felgate, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.