Sediment Properties and Seagrass Carbon Stocks in Northern Ireland

Heidi McIlvenny presents the first regionally representative assessment of sedimentary organic carbon storage in Northern Ireland's seagrass meadows. Sediment cores from nine intertidal and subtidal meadows were analyzed for carbon content, sediment properties, and stable carbon isotopes, with adjacent unvegetated sediments used as references. The dataset, last updated in May 2026, shows average carbon stocks of 109.7 ± 18.9 Mg C ha⁻¹ to 1 m depth, varying by more than an order of magnitude between sites.

Use Cases

• Modeling blue carbon stock heterogeneity based on sediment properties and hydrodynamic setting.
• Assessing the influence of allochthonous vs. autochthonous carbon sources using stable isotope data.
• Developing stratified carbon accounting approaches for seagrass meadows based on physical environment.
• Comparing carbon storage between vegetated and adjacent unvegetated sediments to quantify seagrass burial enhancement.

Strengths

• Provides the first regionally representative carbon stock estimates for Northern Ireland seagrass meadows.
• Includes data from nine distinct sites across intertidal and subtidal hydrogeomorphic settings.
• Reports specific carbon stock values, averaging 109.7 ± 18.9 Mg C ha⁻¹ with a range from 18.6 to 280.8 Mg C ha⁻¹.
• Analyzes multiple variables: carbon content, sediment properties, and stable carbon isotopes.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is very small (16.3 KB), indicating limited scope, likely a summary table or document.

Provenance

Source

Heidi McIlvenny via figshare.

Collection Method

Sediment cores were collected from nine meadows and analyzed for carbon content, sediment properties, and stable carbon isotopes.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-18 10:54:13; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Ireland seagrass meadows.