Global Patterns in Marine Sediment Carbon Stocks

Authors

Trisha B. Atwood, Utah State UniversityFollow
Andrew W. Witt, Utah State UniversityFollow
Juan Mayorga, University of California, Santa Barbara
Edd Hammill, Utah State UniversityFollow
Enric Sala, National Geographic Society

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Frontiers in Marine Science

Volume

7

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

Publication Date

3-25-2020

First Page

1

Last Page

9

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Abstract

To develop more accurate global carbon (C) budgets and to better inform management of human activities in the ocean, we need high-resolution estimates of marine C stocks. Here we quantify global marine sedimentary C stocks at a 1-km resolution, and find that marine sediments store ∼ 3117 (3006–3209) Pg C in the top 1 m (more than twice that of terrestrial soils). Sediments in abyss/basin zones account for 75% of the global marine sediment C stock, and 52% of that stock is within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zones of countries. Currently, only ∼2% of sediment C stocks are located in highly to fully protected areas that prevent the disturbance of the seafloor. Our results show that marine sediments represent a large and globally important C sink. However, the lack of protection for marine C stocks makes them highly vulnerable to human disturbances that can lead to their remineralization to CO₂, further aggravating climate change impacts.

Recommended Citation

Atwood TB, Witt A, Mayorga J, Hammill E and Sala E (2020) Global Patterns in Marine Sediment Carbon Stocks. Front. Mar. Sci. 7:165. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00165