Author Identifier (ORCID)
Pere Masque: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1789-320X
Abstract
Seagrass meadows are natural carbon sinks, yet the effect of ocean acidification on their carbon burial capacity remains poorly understood. Here we investigated natural carbon dioxide vents in Ischia, Italy to assess how seawater pH influences carbon burial in an area dominated by the seagrass Posidonia oceanica. Organic carbon burial rates (mean ± standard error) between 1954 – 2021 were low under ambient conditions (1.5 ± 0.5 g m-2 yr-1) but increased sharply under acidified conditions (7 ± 1 g m-2 yr-1), reaching sevenfold higher values under extreme acidification (10 ± 3 g m-2 yr-1). Stable isotopes suggest that these patterns reflect changes in the relative contribution of seagrass, macroalgae, and epiphytes to buried carbon. These findings reveal that ocean acidification can substantially alter coastal carbon cycling, potentially through shifts in community composition, with important implications for understanding past and future feedbacks between seagrass ecosystems and the marine carbon cycle.
Keywords
Seagrass meadows, ocean acidification, carbon burial, posidonia oceanica, coastal ecosystems, stable isotopes
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
12-1-2026
Volume
7
Issue
1
Publication Title
Communications Earth & Environment
Publisher
Nature
School
Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research / School of Science
Funders
This study was part of the C-BLUES project (EU Horizon Europe, grant no: HORIZON-CL5-2023-D1-02), and of the French National Research Agency Investments for the Future “4Oceans-Make Our Planet Great Again” grant, (grant no: ANR-17 MOPGA-0001).
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Kindeberg, T., Teixidó, N., Comeau, S., Gattuso, J., Gasser, B., Mirasole, A., Alliouane, S., Kalaitzakis, I., Berbece, D., Cornwall, C., & Masque, P. (2026). Enhanced carbon burial in seagrass meadows under ocean acidification revealed by carbon dioxide vents. Communications Earth & Environment, 7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03349-7