Global estimates of seagrass blue carbon stocks in biomass and net primary production

Authors/Creators

Enric Gomis
Simone Strydom, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Nicole R. Foster
Diana Montemayor
Miguel A. Mateo, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Eduard Serrano
Karina Inostroza
Roisin McCallum, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Anna Lafratta, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Chanelle L. Webster, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Caitlyn L. O’Dea, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Nicole E. Said, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Natasha Dunham, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Rachele Bernasconi, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Axel Werner, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Federico Vitelli, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Viena Puigcorbé
Alexandra D’Cruz, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Cristian Salinas, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Kathryn M. McMahon, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Glenn A. Hyndes, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Paul S. Lavery, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Albert Pessarodona
Carlose M. Duarte
Oscar Serrano, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Author Identifier (ORCID)

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3525-1665

Abstract

Seagrass meadows play a key role in the global carbon cycle through storing carbon in their biomass and soils. However, the lack of global assessments of carbon stocks in seagrass biomass and net primary production (NPP) limits our understanding of their role in the carbon cycle. Here, we provide global estimates of biomass carbon stocks and NPP encompassing seagrasses with different life-history strategies, across bioregions and 66 countries. Seagrass meadows show up to 800-fold differences in biomass across different life-history strategies and bioregions (mean ± SE; 1551 ± 40 kg C ha⁻¹), whereas seagrass NPP (5833 ± 557 kg C ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹) ranks among the highest within photosynthetic ecosystems. We estimate seagrass biomass carbon stocks at 24–40 Tg C and NPP at 83–137 Tg C yr⁻¹ within 160,387 to 266,500 km² of global seagrass extent. This study showcases the role of seagrasses in the global carbon cycle and provides the basis for their inclusion in carbon crediting schemes towards implementing conservation actions for climate change mitigation.

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

12-1-2025

Volume

16

Issue

1

PubMed ID

41184302

Publication Title

Nature Communications

Publisher

Nature

School

Centre for People, Place and Planet / Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research / School of Science

RAS ID

84452

Funders

I + D + i projects RYC2019-027073-I & MEDCHANGE funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 / European Union (101105307-POSIDONIArXiv)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Comments

Gomis, E., Strydom, S., Foster, N. R., Montemayor, D., Mateo, M. A., Serrano, E., Inostroza, K., McCallum, R., Lafratta, A., Webster, C. L., O’Dea, C. M., Said, N. E., Dunham, N., Bernasconi, R., Werner, A., Vitelli, F., Puigcorbe, V., D’Cruz, A., Salinas, C., . . . Serrano, O. (2025). Global estimates of seagrass blue carbon stocks in biomass and net primary production. Nature Communications, 16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64667-6