Abstract
Marine climate change mitigation initiatives have recently attracted a great deal of interest in the role of natural carbon sinks, particularly on coastal systems. Brown seaweeds of the genus Sargassum are the largest canopy-forming algae in tropical and subtropical environments, with a wide global distribution on rocky reefs and as floating stands. Because these algae present high amounts of biomass, we suggest their contribution is relevant for global carbon stocks and consequently for mitigating climate change as CO2 remover. We modelled global distributions and quantified carbon stocks as above-ground biomass (AGB) with machine learning algorithms and climate data. Sargassum AGB totaled 13.1 Pg C at the global scale, which is a significant amount of carbon, comparable to other key marine ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, salt marshes and seagrass meadows. However, specific techniques related to bloom production and management, or the utilization of biomass for biomaterials, should be fostered.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 138745 |
Journal | Science of the Total Environment |
Volume | 729 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 17 2020 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This study was supported by grants from Boticário Foundation; FAPESC-Foundation support research and innovation in the State of Santa Catarina; Capes-Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination; CNPq-National Council for Scientific and Technological Development; Petrobras Ambiental, REBENTOS-Habitat monitoring network coastal Benthic and ProspecMar-Islands-Sustainable prospecting in Ocean Islands: Biodiversity, Chemistry, Ecology and Biotechnology; Rede Coral Vivo and REDEALGAS; a Pew Marine Fellowship; and Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) of Portugal via SFRH/BSAB/150485/2019, the transitional norm DL57/2016/CP1361/CT0035, project UIDB/04326/2020 and from the Portuguese node of EMBRC-ERIC, EMBRC.PT ALG-01-0145-FEDER-022121. Lidiane P. Gouvêa received a scholarship (88882.438723/2019-01) from Capes. Dr. Paulo A. Horta thanks CAPES- Senior Visitor, CAPES-PrInt 310793/2018-01, CNPq-PVE 407365/2013-3, CNPq-Universal 426215/2016-8 and CNPq-PQ- 308537/2019-0.