Yamuza-Magdaleno et al. (2026): Temperature-driven decline in recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon weakens coastal macrophyte’s blue carbon storage potential
Alba Yamuza-Magdaleno, Tomás Azcárate-García, Luis Gonzalo Egea, Xosé Antón Álvarez-Salgado, Hauke Reuter, Fernando Guillermo Brun and Pedro Beca-Carretero, IN: Communications Earth & Environment, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-026-03417-y
Marine macrophytes, including seagrasses and seaweeds, are major contributors to the marine carbon cycle through the release of dissolved organic carbon, a fraction of which is recalcitrant (resistant to microbial degradation for weeks to months), thereby supporting long-term carbon storage. Here the authors tested how warming and invasion by a non-native seagrass affect carbon dynamics in temperate macrophyte communities from southern Iberia using controlled mesocosm experiments across three temperatures.