Intertidal seagrass carbon stocks and accumulation rates

The UK’s intertidal seagrass meadows are burying carbon in their sediments, but nobody knows exactly how much or how fast. Seagrass meadows act as natural carbon sinks, trapping organic-rich sediments that lock carbon away for decades or centuries. In the UK, these habitats are under threat from pollution, disease, and physical disturbance, and restoration projects have only begun since 2019. However, there is a critical data gap: scientists lack reliable, UK-wide estimates of how much carbon is stored in intertidal seagrass sediments, and at what rate it accumulates. Without this baseline, it is impossible to accurately value the climate benefit of protecting or restoring these meadows. This project, working with Natural England, will collect sediment cores from intertidal seagrass sites across the UK and measure their carbon content and burial rates in the lab. The resulting dataset will identify which environmental factors—such as sediment type, tidal exposure, or water quality—drive variability in carbon storage. If successful, the research will provide the evidence needed to formally include intertidal seagrass carbon in national climate accounting, supporting conservation policy and justifying investment in habitat restoration as a nature-based climate solution.