Figure 1.

Seagrass meadow sediment C_org concentrations are typically highest below the surface in a region corresponding with the rhizosphere and approach the background concentration observed at unvegetated sites with increasing depth (data adapted from Greiner et al.¹² and used with permission). The seagrass-enhanced sediment C_org stock (light gray) can be quantified by integrating the area under the profile and subtracting the background C_org stock that one would expect to find absent the meadow (dark gray); note that this approach does not require establishing a reference plane or quantifying bed accretion (black gradient) attributable to the meadow by sediment dating.