Carbon burial in sediments below seaweed farms matches that of Blue Carbon habitats

Author Identifier

Pere Masque: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1789-320X

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Nature Climate Change

Publisher

Nature

School

Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research / School of Science

Funders

ClimateWorks Foundation / Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust / Hindawi Charitable Fund / World Wildlife Fund / King Abdullah University of Science and Technology / Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (LIFEWATCH-2019-09-CSIC-13-LWE2021-03-032) / EU H2020 (869300) / Research Council of Norway (267536) / Bezos Earth Fund / Fundamental Research Fund of Zhejiang University (2021XZZX012) / Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation/ Funds for Distinguished Young Scientists (LR22D06003) / Australian Research Council Discovery Grant / Government of the Principality of Monaco / Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI, 18H04156, 18H03354)

Grant Number

ARC Number : DP200100575

Comments

Duarte, C. M., Delgado-Huertas, A., Marti, E., Gasser, B., Martin, I. S., Cousteau, A., ... & Masque, P. (2025). Carbon burial in sediments below seaweed farms matches that of Blue Carbon habitats. Nature Climate Change, 15, 180-187. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02238-1

Abstract

Seaweed farming has emerged as a potential Blue Carbon strategy, yet empirical estimates of carbon burial from such farms remain lacking in the literature. Here, we quantify carbon burial in 20 seaweed farms distributed globally, ranging from 2 to 300 years in operation and from 1 to 15,000 ha in size. The thickness of sediment layers and stocks of organic carbon accumulated below the farms increased with farm age, reaching 140 tC ha−1 for the oldest farm. Organic carbon burial rates averaged 1.87 ± 0.73 tCO2e ha−1 yr−1 in farm sediments, twice that in reference sediments. The excess CO2e burial attributable to the seaweed farms averaged 1.06 ± 0.74 CO2e ha−1 yr−1, confirming that seaweed farming in depositional environments buries carbon in the underlying sediments at rates towards the low range of that of Blue Carbon habitats, but increasing with farm age.

DOI

10.1038/s41558-024-02238-1

Access Rights

subscription content

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS