Australian vegetated coastal ecosystems as global hotspots for climate change mitigation

• Main Authors: Oscar Serrano, Catherine E. Lovelock, Trisha B. Atwood, Peter I. Macreadie, Robert Canto, Stuart Phinn, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Le Bai, Jeff Baldock, Camila Bedulli, Paul Carnell, Rod M. Connolly, Paul Donaldson, Alba Esteban, Carolyn J. Ewers Lewis, Bradley D. Eyre, Matthew A. Hayes, Pierre Horwitz, Lindsay B. Hutley, Christopher R. J. Kavazos, Jeffrey J. Kelleway, Gary A. Kendrick, Kieryn Kilminster, Anna Lafratta, Shing Lee, Paul S. Lavery, Damien T. Maher, Núria Marbà, Pere Masque, Miguel A. Mateo, Richard Mount, Peter J. Ralph, Chris Roelfsema, Mohammad Rozaimi, Radhiyah Ruhon, Cristian Salinas, Jimena Samper-Villarreal, Jonathan Sanderman, Christian J. Sanders, Isaac Santos, Chris Sharples, Andrew D. L. Steven, Toni Cannard, Stacey M. Trevathan-Tackett, Carlos M. Duarte
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2019-10-01
• Series: Nature Communications
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12176-8
• ISSN: 2041-1723

Policies aiming to preserve vegetated coastal ecosystems (VCE) to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions require national assessments of blue carbon resources. Here the authors assessed organic carbon storage in VCE across Australian and the potential annual CO2 emission benefits of VCE conservation and find that Australia contributes substantially the carbon stored in VCE globally.