High variability of Blue Carbon storage in seagrass meadows at the estuary scale Ricart, Aurora M., York, Paul H., Bryant, Catherine V., Rasheed, Michael A., Ierodiaconou, Daniel and Macreadie, Peter I. 2020, High variability of Blue Carbon storage in seagrass meadows at the estuary scale, Scientific Reports, vol. 10, pp. 1-12, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62639-y. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads ierodiaconou-highvariability-2020.pdf Published version application/pdf 2.33MB 4 Title High variability of Blue Carbon storage in seagrass meadows at the estuary scale Author(s) Ricart, Aurora M. York, Paul H. Bryant, Catherine V. Rasheed, Michael A. Ierodiaconou, Daniel orcid.org/0000-0002-7832-4801 Macreadie, Peter I. orcid.org/0000-0001-7362-0882 Journal name Scientific Reports Volume number 10 Article ID 5865 Start page 1 End page 12 Total pages 12 Publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC Place of publication Berlin, Germany Publication date 2020-12 ISSN 2045-2322 Keyword(s) Carbon cycle Climate-change mitigation Ecosystem services Marine biology Summary Seagrass meadows are considered important natural carbon sinks due to their capacity to store organic carbon (Corg) in sediments. However, the spatial heterogeneity of carbon storage in seagrass sediments needs to be better understood to improve accuracy of Blue Carbon assessments, particularly when strong gradients are present. We performed an intensive coring study within a sub-tropical estuary to assess the spatial variability in sedimentary Corg associated with seagrasses, and to identify the key factors promoting this variability. We found a strong spatial pattern within the estuary, from 52.16 mg Corg cm−3 in seagrass meadows in the upper parts, declining to 1.06 mg Corg cm−3 in seagrass meadows at the estuary mouth, despite a general gradient of increasing seagrass cover and seagrass habitat extent in the opposite direction. The sedimentary Corg underneath seagrass meadows came principally from allochthonous (non-seagrass) sources (~70–90 %), while the contribution of seagrasses was low (~10–30 %) throughout the entire estuary. Our results showed that Corg stored in sediments of seagrass meadows can be highly variable within an estuary, attributed largely to accumulation of fine sediments and inputs of allochthonous sources. Local features and the existence of spatial gradients must be considered in Blue Carbon estimates in coastal ecosystems. Language eng DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-62639-y Indigenous content off HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal ERA Research output type C Journal article Copyright notice ©2020, The Authors Free to Read? Yes Use Rights Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30136354 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment School of Life and Environmental Sciences Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Link to full-text (open access)     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Tue, 28 Apr 2020, 15:38:05 EST Thu, 07 May 2020, 10:24:34 EST Fri, 08 May 2020, 05:00:16 EST Fri, 08 May 2020, 06:03:42 EST Mon, 11 May 2020, 11:17:13 EST Mon, 11 May 2020, 13:11:33 EST Sat, 30 May 2020, 02:31:50 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 17 Abstract Views, 6 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Thu, 07 May 2020, 10:24:34 EST

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