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Eutrophication indirectly reduced carbon sequestration in a tropical seagrass bed

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Abstract

Aims

Seagrass beds occur globally and are substantial blue carbon sinks, yet factors that affect sediment organic carbon (SOC) sequestration are poorly characterized. We investigated the influences of eutrophication on SOC sequestration capacity in a mixed seagrass bed dominated by Thalassia hemprichii and Enhalus acoroides.

Methods

We surveyed a tropical seagrass bed in the South China Sea along fish farming-induced gradients of nutrients to assess the variability of SOC content and composition in 30-cm-long sediment cores.

Results

No significant difference was observed for the SOC content and stock between the two species. Significantly higher microbial biomass carbon and SOC density were observed at the surface 3 cm layer under E. acoroides, and the longer roots of E. acoroides enhanced the seagrass contribution to the SOC near the root tip. SOC had a statistically lower concentration in the sediment layers where the seagrass roots primarily thrive close to fish farming, but greater exchangeable organic carbon was found in all the sediment layers as they approached fish farming. Nutrient enrichment markedly induced a larger ratio of labile C pools in almost all sediment layers. The mean SOC stock in the seagrass bed in Xincun Bay was 6.80 ± 1.03 Mg C/ha, and it showed insignificant variation along the nutrient gradient.

Conclusions

Eutrophication may indirectly reduce the SOC sequestration capacity in the seagrass bed by enhancing labile organic carbon with a shorter resident time, and measures should be taken to reduce nutrient input into the seagrass bed to enhance its carbon sink.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB452905, 2015CB452902), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41730529, 41306108, 41406128), the Natural Science Fund of Guangdong (nos. 2014A030313734, 2014A030313716), the National Specialized Project of Science and Technology (2015FY110600), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0506104).

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  1. Zhijian Jiang and Songlin Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, People’s Republic of China

    Zhijian Jiang, Songlin Liu, Jingping Zhang, Yunchao Wu, Chunyu Zhao, Zhonglian Lian & Xiaoping Huang

  2. Tropical Marine Biological Research Station in Hainan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, 572200, People’s Republic of China

    Zhijian Jiang, Songlin Liu, Jingping Zhang, Yunchao Wu & Chunyu Zhao

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Songlin Liu, Yunchao Wu, Chunyu Zhao, Zhonglian Lian & Xiaoping Huang

  4. South China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou, 510300, China

    Zhonglian Lian

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  1. Zhijian Jiang
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  7. Xiaoping Huang
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Huang.

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Jiang, Z., Liu, S., Zhang, J. et al. Eutrophication indirectly reduced carbon sequestration in a tropical seagrass bed. Plant Soil 426, 135–152 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-018-3604-y

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