IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-59752-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonuniform organic carbon stock loss in soils across disturbed blue carbon ecosystems

Author

Listed:
  • Chuancheng Fu

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

  • Shannon G. Klein

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

  • Jessica Breavington

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

  • Kah Kheng Lim

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

  • Alexandra Steckbauer

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

  • Carlos M. Duarte

    (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST))

Abstract

Conserving blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) has gained international attention in climate change mitigation, reflected in United Nations policies and voluntary carbon-offset projects. These efforts assume significant and uniform losses of soil organic carbon (Corg) throughout the top meter following disturbances, yet this assumption lacks robust empirical support. Here, we synthesized 239 paired observations of intact and disturbed BCEs globally. Soil Corg stock losses in the top meters vary widely: from −68.4% (agricultural conversion, ±13.4%, 95% confidence interval) to +0.8% (harvesting, ±46.2%) in mangroves, −25.9% (climate/hydrological change, ± 30.7%) to +48.6% (grazing, ±78.7%) in saltmarshes, and −34.2% (vegetation cover damage, ±22.4%) to −27.4% (dredging, ±33.6%) in seagrasses. Extensive disturbances deplete Corg down to 50–200 cm, while limited disturbances impact only the top 10–30 cm or resulted in negligible losses. This refinement contributes to improved global inventories of greenhouse gas emissions from BCEs, supporting abatement policy settings for nationally determined contributions commitments.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuancheng Fu & Shannon G. Klein & Jessica Breavington & Kah Kheng Lim & Alexandra Steckbauer & Carlos M. Duarte, 2025. "Nonuniform organic carbon stock loss in soils across disturbed blue carbon ecosystems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59752-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59752-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59752-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-59752-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-59752-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.