Major role of marine vegetation on the oceanic carbon cycle

Abstract. The carbon burial in vegetated sediments, ignored in past assessments of carbon burial in the ocean, was evaluated using a bottom-up approach derived from upscaling a compilation of published individual estimates of carbon burial in vegetated habitats (seagrass meadows, salt marshes and mangrove forests) to the global level and a top-down approach derived from considerations of global sediment balance and a compilation of the organic carbon content of vegeatated sediments. Up-scaling of individual burial estimates values yielded a total carbon burial in vegetated habitats of 111 Tmol C y-1. The total burial in unvegetated sediments was estimated to be 126 Tg C y-1, resulting in a bottom-up estimate…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DEB-94-21535
• NI
  Nederlands Instituut voor Ecologie
• EC
  European Commission
• KN
  Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen