Seagrass decline poses issues for carbon storage projects
phys.org
Climate change is an ever-pressing concern, with innovative ways to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere a continued focus of scientists. One such carbon sequestration method turns to an unlikely sink—seagrass—a marine flowering plant (angiosperm) that is found in shallow coastal waters up to 50m depth on all continents except Antarctica.
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/collapse by /u/PartisanGerm on 2023-11-08 16:38:40.

Highlight from the article.

"Studies suggest that though they may only cover a mere 0.2% of the ocean floor, they have the capability of storing a substantial 15% of oceanic carbon. The rhizosphere (a subsurface zone surrounding roots and rhizomes, underground stems from which a new plant can sprout) around these angiosperms is a prime microenvironment for redox (reduction and oxidation) reactions that enrich the surrounding sediment in organic matter and permit carbon remineralization of plant components.

However, worldwide seagrass populations have been declining 7% annually since 1990 due to local threats, such as coastal erosion, human development and eutrophication (excessive algal growth due to high nutrient concentrations), as well as from global warming, posing a real threat to the drawdown of carbon from the oceans and atmosphere."