As highly productive carbon sinks, would seagrass meadows pose as a local mitigation tool against the impacts of ocean acidification? A new study from the Ecological Society of America explores that thought, outlining a modeling framework to evaluate the buffering potential of individual stands of seagrass.
The authors of “Expected limits on the ocean acidification buffering potential of a temperate seagrass meadow”, including Center research affiliate and Scripps’ scientist Dr. Sarah Giddings, found that while significant buffering (by up to ±0.2 units pH) was observed during midday low tides, seagrass wouldn’t be considered to be long-term acidification mitigation. However, results are expected to differ amongst different seagrass meadows and the authors encourage the model to be applied to other meadows to determine individual mitigation ability.
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Learn more about Dr. Sarah Giddings and our other Research Affiliates here.