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Methane emissions in seagrass meadows as a small offset to carbon sequestration
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  • Yvonne Yu Yan Yau,
  • Gloria Reithmaier,
  • Claudia Majtenyi-Hill,
  • Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal,
  • Martin Dahl,
  • Miguel Angel Mateo,
  • Stefano Bonaglia,
  • Oscar Serrano,
  • Isaac Santos
Yvonne Yu Yan Yau
University of Gothenburg

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Gloria Reithmaier
Unknown
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Claudia Majtenyi-Hill
University of Gothenburg
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Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal
University of Aveiro
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Martin Dahl
Unknown
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Miguel Angel Mateo
Consejo Superior Investigaciones Cientificas
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Stefano Bonaglia
University of Gothenburg
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Oscar Serrano
Edith Cowan University
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Isaac Santos
University of Gothenburg
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Abstract

Seagrass meadows are effective carbon sinks due to their high primary production and sequestration in sediments. However, methane (CH4) fluxes can partially counteract their carbon sink capacity. Here, we measured diffusive sediment-water and air-sea CO2 and CH4 fluxes in a coastal embayment dominated by Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea. High resolution timeseries observations revealed large spatial and temporal variability in CH4 concentrations (2 to 36 nM). Higher emissions were observed in an area with dense seagrass meadows. A 6 − 40% decrease of CH4 concentration in the surface water around noon indicates that photosynthesis likely limits CH4 fluxes. Sediments were the major CH4 source as implied from radon (a natural porewater tracer) observations and evidence for methanogenesis in deeper sediments. CH4 sediment-water fluxes (0.1 ± 0.1 − 0.4 ± 0.1 µmol m-2 d-1) were higher than average water-air CH4 emissions (0.12 ± 0.10 µmol m-2 d-1), suggesting that dilution and CH4 oxidation in the water column could reduce net CH4 fluxes into the atmosphere. Overall, relatively low air-sea CH4 fluxes at this likely represent net emissions from subtidal seagrass habitats sites, which are not influenced by nearby allochthonous CH4 sources. The local CH4 emissions in P. oceanica offset less than 1% of the carbon burial in sediments (142 ± 69 g CO2eq m-2 yr-1). Combining our results with earlier observations in other seagrass meadows worldwide reveals that global CH4 emissions within seagrass meadows only offset a small fraction (<2%) of carbon sequestration in sediments.