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dc.contributor.authorSalinas, Cristian
dc.contributor.authorDuarte, Carlos M.
dc.contributor.authorLavery, P. S.
dc.contributor.authorMasqué, Pere
dc.contributor.authorArias-Ortiz, Ariane
dc.contributor.authorLeon, Javier X.
dc.contributor.authorCallaghan, David
dc.contributor.authorKendrick, G. A.
dc.contributor.authorSerrano, Oscar
dc.date.accessioned2020-07-08T06:34:22Z
dc.date.available2020-07-08T06:34:22Z
dc.date.issued2020-07-07
dc.date.submitted2020-02-05
dc.identifier.citationSalinas, C., Duarte, C. M., Lavery, P. S., Masque, P., Arias-Ortiz, A., Leon, J. X., … Serrano, O. (2020). Seagrass losses since mid-20th century fuelled CO 2 emissions from soil carbon stocks. Global Change Biology. doi:10.1111/gcb.15204
dc.identifier.issn1354-1013
dc.identifier.issn1365-2486
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/gcb.15204
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10754/664080
dc.description.abstractSeagrass meadows store globally significant organic carbon (Corg) stocks which, if disturbed, can lead to CO2 emissions, contributing to climate change. Eutrophication and thermal stress continue to be a major cause of seagrass decline worldwide, but the associated CO2 emissions remain poorly understood. This study presents comprehensive estimates of seagrass soil Corg erosion following eutrophication-driven seagrass loss in Cockburn Sound (23 km2 between 1960s and 1990s) and identifies the main drivers. We estimate that shallow seagrass meadows (<5 m depth) had significantly higher Corg stocks in 50 cm thick soils (4.5 ± 0.7 kg Corg/m2) than previously vegetated counterparts (0.5 ± 0.1 kg Corg/m2). In deeper areas (>5 m), however, soil Corg stocks in seagrass and bare but previously vegetated areas were not significantly different (2.6 ± 0.3 and 3.0 ± 0.6 kg Corg/m2, respectively). The soil Corg sequestration capacity prevailed in shallow and deep vegetated areas (55 ± 11 and 21 ± 7 g Corg m−2 year−1, respectively), but was lost in bare areas. We identified that seagrass canopy loss alone does not necessarily drive changes in soil Corg but, when combined with high hydrodynamic energy, significant erosion occurred. Our estimates point at ~0.20 m/s as the critical shear velocity threshold causing soil Corg erosion. We estimate, from field studies and satellite imagery, that soil Corg erosion (within the top 50 cm) following seagrass loss likely resulted in cumulative emissions of 0.06–0.14 Tg CO2-eq over the last 40 years in Cockburn Sound. We estimated that indirect impacts (i.e. eutrophication, thermal stress and light stress) causing the loss of ~161,150 ha of seagrasses in Australia, likely resulted in the release of 11–21 Tg CO2-eq since the 1950s, increasing cumulative CO2 emissions from land-use change in Australia by 1.1%–2.3% per annum. The patterns described serve as a baseline to estimate potential CO2 emissions following disturbance of seagrass meadows.
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was supported by the ECU Faculty Research Grant Scheme. C.S. was funded by ECU Higher Degree by Research Scholarship. O.S. was supported by an ARC DECRA DE170101524. This work is contributing to the ICTA ‘Unit of Excellence’ (MinECo, MDM2015-0552). P.M. and A.A.-O. acknowledge the support by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Grant 2017 SGR-1588). A.A.-O. was supported by a PhD scholarship from Obra Social ‘LaCaixa’ (LCF/BQ/ES14/10320004). The International Atomic Energy Agency is grateful for the support provided to its Environment Laboratories by the Government of the Principality of Monaco.
dc.publisherWiley
dc.relation.urlhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.15204
dc.relation.urlhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/gcb.15204
dc.rightsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.titleSeagrass losses since mid-20th century fuelled CO 2 emissions from soil carbon stocks
dc.typeArticle
dc.contributor.departmentBiological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) Division
dc.contributor.departmentMarine Science Program
dc.contributor.departmentRed Sea Research Center (RSRC)
dc.identifier.journalGlobal Change Biology
dc.eprint.versionPublisher's Version/PDF
dc.contributor.institutionSchool of Science & Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research Edith Cowan University Joondalup WA Australia
dc.contributor.institutionInternational Atomic Energy Agency Principality of Monaco Monaco
dc.contributor.institutionInstitut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals and Departament de Física Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Bellaterra Spain
dc.contributor.institutionEcosystem Science Division Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management University of California at Berkeley Berkeley CA USA
dc.contributor.institutionGlobal Change Ecology Research Group School of Science and Engineering University of the Sunshine Coast Sippy Downs Qld Australia
dc.contributor.institutionSchool of Civil Engineering The University of Queensland St Lucia Qld Australia
dc.contributor.institutionThe School of Biological Sciences The University of Western Australia Crawley WA Australia
dc.contributor.institutionThe UWA Oceans Institute The University of Western Australia Crawley WA Australia
kaust.personDuarte, Carlos M.
dc.date.accepted2020-05-26
refterms.dateFOA2020-07-08T06:35:06Z
dc.date.published-online2020-07-07
dc.date.published-print2020-09


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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.