6openopenGloria Misson, Guido Incerti, Giorgio Alberti, Gemini Delle Vedove, Tiziana Pirelli, Alessandro PeressottiMisson, Gloria; Incerti, Guido; Giorgio, Alberti; Gemini Delle Vedove, ; Tiziana, Pirelli; Alessandro, Peressott

Alberti, Giorgio

DELLE VEDOVE, Gemini

Incerti, Guido

Misson, Gloria

Peressotti, Alessandro

Pirelli, Tiziana

English

MISSON, GLORIA

Guido Incerti

Giorgio Alberti

Gemini Delle Vedove

Tiziana Pirelli

Alessandro Peressotti

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Trieste

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 19, EGU2017-19416-1, 2017EGU General Assembly 2017© Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License.Assessing the contribution of beach-cast seagrass wrack to global GHGsemissions: experimental models, problems and perspectivesGloria Misson (1,2), Guido Incerti (1), Giorgio Alberti (1), Gemini Delle Vedove (1), Tiziana Pirelli (1), andAlessandro Peressotti (1)(1) Dipartimento di Scienze Agroalimentari, Ambientali e Animali, Università di Udine, via delle Scienze 206, 33100 Udine,Italy, (2) Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, via Weiss 2, 34100 Trieste, ItalyCarbon stock in coastal seagrass ecosystems is estimated to be 4.2-8.4 Pg C. While covering less than 0.2% of theocean floor, seagrasses store about 10% of the carbon buried in the oceans each year. However, such a potentialcontribution is reduced by the annual loss of seagrasses globally (-1.5% per year) mainly because of anthropogeniccoastal development and climate change. Like many terrestrial higher plants, marine seagrasses lose their oldleaves during annual or inter-annual senescence, and a significant proportion of these residues is transported insurface waters and washed up on shores by surf, tides and winds. This beach-cast seagrass wrack provides im-portant ecosystem services, such as reducing wave impact, protecting beaches from erosion, providing habitat tobird and invertebrate species that colonize shorelines, and being a primary food resource for beach detritivores.However, accumulation of seagrass wrack on beaches, following degradation of meadows, can negatively impacttourism. Therefore, wrack piles are frequently collected and disposed of in landfills or biomass waste facilities,and the adoption of these management practices implies substantial environmental and economic costs. On theother hand, wrack piles might be a significant source of greenhouse emissions (GHGs). Recent studies reportedCO2 emission rates and suggested possible mitigation options, such as energy conversion and biochar productionthrough pyrolysis. Even though quantitative estimates of both seagrass coastal distribution and residues disposalto seashores are partially available, at least at regional level, the assessment of their contribution to global GHGsemissions is still lacking, due to a knowledge gap about the effects of peculiar environmental conditions of beachecosystems on seagrass decay rates.In this framework, we propose an experimental model to assess seagrass wrack decomposition dynamics in bothcontrolled conditions and experimental fields in North-East Italy, with focus on CO2 and CH4 emissions, as a func-tion of temperature, salinity, water supply and physical properties of the wrack piles. After presenting preliminaryresults, we highlight problems and perspectives concerning the assessment of beach-cast wrack contribution to theglobal GHGs emissions.

Assessing the contribution of beach-cast seagrass wrack to global GHGs emissions: experimental models, problems and perspectives

Delle Vedove, Gemini

Institutional Research Information System

INCERTI, Guido

ALBERTI, Giorgio

PERESSOTTI, Alessandro

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università degli Studi di Udine

https://air.uniud.it/bitstream/11390/1119038/1/2017_Geophys%20Res%20Abs_EGU2017-19416-1.pdf

Assessing the contribution of beach-cast seagrass wrack to global GHGs emissions: experimental models, problems and perspectives

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Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università di Trieste

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Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università degli Studi di Udine