Marine Science Program, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division (BESE), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
Queensland Government, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Nov;291(2035):20240502. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0502. Epub 2024 Nov 27.
Seagrass meadows are natural carbon sinks, and their conservation and restoration play a crucial role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, blue carbon projects are hindered, in most nations, by major gaps in understanding the distribution and extent of seagrasses. Here, we show how satellite tracking of green turtles () provided a major advance in identifying novel seagrass blue carbon resources in the Red Sea. By tracking 53 nesting green turtles, we identified 38 distinctive foraging sites. All ground-truthed foraging sites (100%) identified a seagrass meadow, surpassing the 40% ( = 30) accuracy of satellite imagery-based inferences. Sampling from these turtle-derived locations represents a greater range of depths than previously sampled in the Red Sea providing a carbon stock estimate of 4.89 ± 0.83 kg (organic carbon) m. By improving estimates of seagrass extent and associated blue carbon, our approach can support the conservation of blue carbon resources in data-deficient regions worldwide.
海草床是天然的碳汇，保护和恢复海草床对于减缓气候变化和适应气候变化至关重要。然而，在大多数国家，由于对海草的分布和范围缺乏了解，蓝色碳项目受到了阻碍。在这里，我们展示了如何通过跟踪绿海龟（Chelonia mydas）来提供在红海识别新的海草蓝色碳资源的主要进展。通过跟踪 53 只筑巢的绿海龟，我们确定了 38 个独特的觅食点。所有经过实地核实的觅食点（100%）都确定有海草床，超过了基于卫星图像推断的 40%（=30）的准确率。从这些海龟衍生的地点进行采样的深度范围比以前在红海采样的范围更广，提供了 4.89±0.83kg（有机碳）m-2 的碳储量估计。通过提高对海草范围和相关蓝色碳的估计，我们的方法可以支持在数据匮乏的全球范围内保护蓝色碳资源。
