How much carbon is stored beneath Europe’s seagrass meadows?
Seagrass ecosystems are among the most valuable coastal habitats in the world. In addition to providing nursery grounds for marine species, improving water quality and helping protect coastlines, they also play an important role in capturing and storing carbon, often referred to as blue carbon.
As interest in nature-based solutions to climate change continues to grow, understanding where blue carbon is stored, how much is present, and how it may change over time is becoming increasingly important.
This is the focus of the third resource in MARCO-BOLO’s Knowledge Transfer Series: Mapping and Understanding Blue Carbon in Seagrass Ecosystems.
Understanding blue carbon
Blue carbon refers to the carbon captured and stored by marine and coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows.
While seagrass habitats occupy only a small proportion of the world’s oceans, they can store significant amounts of carbon within their vegetation and underlying sediments. Protecting and restoring these ecosystems therefore has the potential to contribute to both biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation efforts.
However, accurately estimating carbon stocks across large geographic areas remains a challenge. Field surveys provide valuable measurements, but they can only cover a limited number of locations.
Combining data to improve carbon mapping
To address this challenge, MARCO-BOLO explored innovative approaches for assessing and predicting blue carbon stocks in European seagrass meadows.
The project combined existing environmental and ecological data with modelling approaches to better understand how carbon storage varies across different regions and conditions.
A key outcome of this work is the development of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) that allows users to explore and visualise blue carbon predictions for seagrass ecosystems. By bringing together datasets, analytical tools and model outputs, the VRE provides an accessible way to investigate patterns of carbon storage and explore potential future applications.
Supporting restoration and conservation
Understanding where blue carbon is stored can support a wide range of environmental decisions.
Information on carbon stocks can help identify areas of high ecological value, inform habitat restoration efforts and contribute to the development of effective conservation strategies. It can also provide evidence to support climate-related policies and nature-based solutions that seek to maximise benefits for both biodiversity and carbon storage.
By making these insights more accessible, MARCO-BOLO aims to help bridge the gap between scientific research and practical decision-making.
Why does this matter?
Healthy seagrass meadows support biodiversity, store carbon and provide important ecosystem services for coastal communities. Improving our understanding of these habitats can help support better conservation, restoration and climate-related decision-making across Europe.
Explore the resource
The resource introduces MARCO-BOLO’s work on blue carbon in seagrass ecosystems and provides access to the Virtual Research Environment developed through the project.
Explore the resource and learn more about blue carbon in European seagrass meadows here: https://marcobolo-project.eu/knowledge-transfer-series/