Seagrass Meadows Sequester Carbon 35x Faster Than Tropical Rainforests per Hectare
Fourqurean J, Duarte C, Kennedy H
Climate Adaptation
Ocean floors near coastlines may be doing more to slow climate change than the forests we've been focused on protecting, meaning coastal conservation could be one of the most powerful climate tools we have.
Scientists studied seagrass — the flowering underwater plant that forms lush green meadows along coastlines — and found it captures and buries carbon at a stunning rate, far outpacing even dense tropical rainforests when you compare the same amount of land area. Even more surprising, as ocean water has warmed, these seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean Sea have been capturing *more* carbon, not less as researchers feared. This flips the script on what we thought we knew about how ocean plants respond to a warming world.
Key Findings
Seagrass meadows bury carbon at 174 g C per square meter per year — 35 times faster per hectare than tropical rainforests.
The study analyzed 127 Posidonia oceanica (Neptune grass) meadows globally, making it one of the largest meta-analyses of seagrass carbon sequestration to date.
Mediterranean meadows in warmer waters showed 15% higher carbon sequestration rates, directly contradicting predictions that heat stress would cause seagrass decline and carbon loss.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Seagrass meadows bury carbon 35 times faster per acre than tropical rainforests, and warming Mediterranean waters are actually making them even better at it — the opposite of what scientists expected.
Abstract Preview
A global meta-analysis of 127 Posidonia oceanica meadows reveals carbon burial rates of 174 g C/m2/year, 35x the per-area rate of tropical forests. Meadows in warming Mediterranean waters showed 15...
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Posidonia oceanica, commonly known as Neptune grass or Mediterranean tapeweed, is a seagrass species that is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It forms large underwater meadows that are an important part of the ecosystem. The fruit is free floating and known in Italy as "the olive of the sea". Ba...