Beneath The Waves, PO Box 126, Herndon, VA, USA.
Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 1;13(1):6328. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33926-1.
Seagrass conservation is critical for mitigating climate change due to the large stocks of carbon they sequester in the seafloor. However, effective conservation and its potential to provide nature-based solutions to climate change is hindered by major uncertainties regarding seagrass extent and distribution. Here, we describe the characterization of the world's largest seagrass ecosystem, located in The Bahamas. We integrate existing spatial estimates with an updated empirical remote sensing product and perform extensive ground-truthing of seafloor with 2,542 diver surveys across remote sensing tiles. We also leverage seafloor assessments and movement data obtained from instrument-equipped tiger sharks, which have strong fidelity to seagrass ecosystems, to augment and further validate predictions. We report a consensus area of at least 66,000 km and up to 92,000 km of seagrass habitat across The Bahamas Banks. Sediment core analysis of stored organic carbon further confirmed the global relevance of the blue carbon stock in this ecosystem. Data from tiger sharks proved important in supporting mapping and ground-truthing remote sensing estimates. This work provides evidence of major knowledge gaps in the ocean ecosystem, the benefits in partnering with marine animals to address these gaps, and underscores support for rapid protection of oceanic carbon sinks.
由于其在海底储存的大量碳储量，海草保护对于缓解气候变化至关重要。然而，由于对海草范围和分布的主要不确定性，有效的保护及其为气候变化提供自然解决方案的潜力受到阻碍。在这里，我们描述了位于巴哈马的世界上最大的海草生态系统的特征。我们将现有的空间估计与更新的经验遥感产品相结合，并对遥感瓦片进行了 2542 次潜水调查的广泛海底实地调查。我们还利用从配备仪器的虎鲨获得的海底评估和运动数据来增加和进一步验证预测，这些鲨鱼对海草生态系统具有很强的忠诚度。我们报告说，在巴哈马群岛海域至少有 66000 平方公里，最多有 92000 平方公里的海草生境。储存有机碳的沉积物核心分析进一步证实了该生态系统中蓝色碳储量的全球相关性。来自虎鲨的数据对于支持制图和遥感估算的实地调查非常重要。这项工作提供了海洋生态系统中主要知识空白的证据，以及与海洋动物合作解决这些空白的好处，并强调支持快速保护海洋碳汇。
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