Department of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea.
Department of Biological Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea; College of Marine Science, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Mar 20;813:152680. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152680. Epub 2021 Dec 29.
Coastal vegetated habitats such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses, referred to as blue carbon ecosystems, play an important role in climate change mitigation by an effective CO capture from atmosphere and water columns and long-term organic carbon (C) storage in sediments. Although seagrass meadows are considered intense carbon sinks, information on regional variability in seagrass blue carbon stock and factors influencing its capacity still remain sparse. In the present study, seagrass blue carbon storage by measuring C stocks in sediments and living seagrass biomass, and carbon accumulation rates (CARs) in seagrass meadows were estimated along the Korean coast. Factors affecting variability in C stocks were also analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) regression and principal component analysis (PCA). Projected C stocks in sediment, extrapolated to a depth 1 m, exhibited substantial variability among sites, ranging from 49.91 to 125.71 Mg C ha. The majority of C (96-99%) was stored in sediments, whereas the contribution of living biomass was minor. PLS regression and PCA indicated that C stocks in seagrass meadows are strongly associated with sediment characteristics such as dry bulk density and water and mud content. Among seagrass traits, above- to below-ground biomass ratio was significantly related to the quantity of C stocks in seagrass meadows. Because of the high spatial variability in C stocks and CARs, local and regional differences in seagrass blue carbon storage should be considered to accurately assess the climate change mitigation potential of seagrass ecosystems.
滨海植被生境，如红树林、盐沼和海草等蓝碳生态系统，通过从大气和水柱中有效捕获 CO2 并将长期有机碳 (C) 储存在沉积物中，在减缓气候变化方面发挥着重要作用。尽管海草草甸被认为是强烈的碳汇，但有关海草蓝碳储量的区域变异性及其影响因素的信息仍然很少。本研究通过测量沉积物和活体海草生物量中的 C 储量以及海草甸中的碳积累速率 (CAR)，来估算韩国沿海的海草蓝碳储量。还使用偏最小二乘 (PLS) 回归和主成分分析 (PCA) 分析了影响 C 储量变异性的因素。预测的沉积物中 C 储量，外推到 1 米深，显示出站点之间的显著差异，范围从 49.91 到 125.71 Mg C ha。C 的大部分（96-99%）储存在沉积物中，而活体生物量的贡献较小。PLS 回归和 PCA 表明，海草甸中的 C 储量与沉积物特性密切相关，如干体密度、水和泥含量。在海草特征中，地上到地下生物量比与海草甸中 C 储量的数量显著相关。由于 C 储量和 CAR 的空间变异性很大，应该考虑海草蓝碳储存的本地和区域差异，以准确评估海草生态系统减缓气候变化的潜力。
