The National Science Foundation has just released a study that shows the incredible effects of seagrasses in helping act as a carbon sink for our planet. This reinforces our efforts locally via our Marine Resource Committees, and the efforts of Shoreline Master Programs (SMPs) to protect the shorelines and near shore environments from abuse.
The results demonstrate that coastal seagrass beds store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, mostly in the soils beneath them.
As a comparison, a typical terrestrial forest stores about 30,000 metric tons per square kilometer, most of which is in the form of wood.
The research also estimates that, although seagrass meadows occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they are responsible for more than 10 percent of all carbon buried annually in the sea.
Read the whole story here:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=124263&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click