Abstract
Seagrass meadows are effective carbon sinks due to their high primary
production and sequestration in sediments. However, methane (CH4) fluxes
can partially counteract their carbon sink capacity. Here, we measured
diffusive sediment-water and air-sea CO2 and CH4 fluxes in a coastal
embayment dominated by Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea. High
resolution timeseries observations revealed large spatial and temporal
variability in CH4 concentrations (2 to 36 nM). Higher emissions were
observed in an area with dense seagrass meadows. A 6 − 40% decrease of
CH4 concentration in the surface water around noon indicates that
photosynthesis likely limits CH4 fluxes. Sediments were the major CH4
source as implied from radon (a natural porewater tracer) observations
and evidence for methanogenesis in deeper sediments. CH4 sediment-water
fluxes (0.1 ± 0.1 − 0.4 ± 0.1 µmol m-2 d-1) were higher than average
water-air CH4 emissions (0.12 ± 0.10 µmol m-2 d-1), suggesting that
dilution and CH4 oxidation in the water column could reduce net CH4
fluxes into the atmosphere. Overall, relatively low air-sea CH4 fluxes
at this likely represent net emissions from subtidal seagrass habitats
sites, which are not influenced by nearby allochthonous CH4 sources. The
local CH4 emissions in P. oceanica offset less than 1% of the carbon
burial in sediments (142 ± 69 g CO2eq m-2 yr-1). Combining our results
with earlier observations in other seagrass meadows worldwide reveals
that global CH4 emissions within seagrass meadows only offset a small
fraction (<2%) of carbon sequestration in sediments.