The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes
Abstract Blue carbon is carbon stored long-term in vegetated coastal ecosystems, which constitutes an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, because methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have higher global warming potentials (GWP) than CO2, their production and release during...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Communications Earth & Environment |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01022-x |
| _version_ | 1797556240531849216 |
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| author | Bradley D. Eyre Nicola Camillini Ronnie N. Glud Judith A. Rosentreter |
| author_facet | Bradley D. Eyre Nicola Camillini Ronnie N. Glud Judith A. Rosentreter |
| author_sort | Bradley D. Eyre |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Blue carbon is carbon stored long-term in vegetated coastal ecosystems, which constitutes an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, because methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have higher global warming potentials (GWP) than CO2, their production and release during organic matter diagenesis can affect the climate benefit of blue carbon. Here, we present a meta-analysis synthesizing seagrass CH4 and N2O fluxes and long-term organic carbon burial rates, and use these data to estimate the reduced climate benefit (offsets) of seagrass blue carbon using three upscaling approaches. Mean offsets for individual seagrass species (34.7% GWP20;1.0% GWP100) and globally (33.4% GWP20;7.0% GWP100) were similar, but GWP20 offsets were higher, and GWP100 offsets were lower than globally, for the Australian region (41.3% GWP20;1.1% GWP100). This study highlights the importance of using long-term organic carbon burial rates and accounting for both CH4 and N2O fluxes in future seagrass blue carbon assessments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:59:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8016d251bd384d799402b50c75cb4ee2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2662-4435 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:59:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Communications Earth & Environment |
| spelling | doaj.art-8016d251bd384d799402b50c75cb4ee22023-11-20T11:02:04ZengNature PortfolioCommunications Earth & Environment2662-44352023-10-01411910.1038/s43247-023-01022-xThe climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxesBradley D. Eyre0Nicola Camillini1Ronnie N. Glud2Judith A. Rosentreter3Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross UniversityCentre for Coastal Biogeochemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross UniversityDepartment of Biology, HADAL, Nordcee and DIAS, University of Southern DenmarkCentre for Coastal Biogeochemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross UniversityAbstract Blue carbon is carbon stored long-term in vegetated coastal ecosystems, which constitutes an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). However, because methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have higher global warming potentials (GWP) than CO2, their production and release during organic matter diagenesis can affect the climate benefit of blue carbon. Here, we present a meta-analysis synthesizing seagrass CH4 and N2O fluxes and long-term organic carbon burial rates, and use these data to estimate the reduced climate benefit (offsets) of seagrass blue carbon using three upscaling approaches. Mean offsets for individual seagrass species (34.7% GWP20;1.0% GWP100) and globally (33.4% GWP20;7.0% GWP100) were similar, but GWP20 offsets were higher, and GWP100 offsets were lower than globally, for the Australian region (41.3% GWP20;1.1% GWP100). This study highlights the importance of using long-term organic carbon burial rates and accounting for both CH4 and N2O fluxes in future seagrass blue carbon assessments.https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01022-x |
| spellingShingle | Bradley D. Eyre Nicola Camillini Ronnie N. Glud Judith A. Rosentreter The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes Communications Earth & Environment |
| title | The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| title_full | The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| title_fullStr | The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| title_full_unstemmed | The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| title_short | The climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| title_sort | climate benefit of seagrass blue carbon is reduced by methane fluxes and enhanced by nitrous oxide fluxes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01022-x |
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