Macroalgal Blooms Trigger the Breakdown of Seagrass Blue Carbon
- Journal:
- Environmental Science and Technology
- Published:
- DOI:
- 10.1021/acs.est.0c03720
- Affiliations:
- 4
- Authors:
- 5
Research Highlight
Seaweed blooms are bad news for blue carbon
© Santiago Urquijo/Moment/Getty Images
Blooms of seaweed can hinder the ability of coastal seagrass to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
Seagrass meadows act as a carbon sink, locking up carbon from the atmosphere by producing organic matter that takes a long time to biodegrade. But blooms of seaweed, largely caused by high nutrient levels due to artificial sources, can disrupt seagrass growth.
Now, a team of four researchers at Deakin University in Australia and a collaborator in China has found that seaweed blooms reduce seagrass’ ability to sequester carbon. Specifically, they found that high densities of seaweed induced microbes to decompose 20% more seagrass than normal, resulting in roughly double the emission of greenhouse gases.
This mirrors results observed in other systems where adding a source of readily decomposable carbon helps break down more resistant forms of carbon.
Institutions | Authors | Share |
---|---|---|
Deakin University, Australia | 0.57 | |
South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), CAS, China | 0.33 | |
University of Virginia (UVA), United States of America (USA) | 0.10 |