Aurora M Ricart

• PhD
• Research Scientist at Institut de Ciències del Mar ICM-CSIC (Spain) & Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences (US)

Coastal wetlands, including seagrass meadows, emergent marshes, mangroves, and temperate tidal swamps, can efficiently sequester and store large quantities of sediment organic carbon (SOC). However, SOC stocks may vary by ecosystem type and along environmental or climate gradients at different scales. Quantifying such variability is needed to impro...

Blue carbon habitats, which exhibit high rates of natural carbon sequestration, typically refer to salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests. Recent studies, however, have argued for the inclusion of seaweed‐dominated habitats, like kelp forests, into blue carbon frameworks. Farmed seaweed may also function as a blue carbon habitat, with...

Seaweed farming has emerged as a potential Blue Carbon strategy, yet empirical estimates of carbon burial from such farms remain lacking in the literature. Here, we quantify carbon burial in 20 seaweed farms distributed globally, ranging from 2 to 300 years in operation and from 1 to 15,000 ha in size. The thickness of sediment layers and stocks of...

Silicon is a major driver of global primary productivity and CO2 sequestration, and is a beneficial element for the growth and environmental stress mitigation of many terrestrial and aquatic plants. However, only a few studies have examined the occurrence of silicon in seagrasses, and its function within seagrass ecosystems and the role of seagrass...

Grazing can impart long‐lasting changes in vegetated ecosystems. How ecosystems respond to herbivory depends on the ecological and evolutionary histories of their foundational species. The overall ecosystem functioning and associated biodiversity depend on these responses but there is still little understanding on how the intensity and duration of...

Patchy global data on belowground litter decomposition dynamics limit our capacity to discern the drivers of carbon preservation and storage across inland and coastal wetlands. We performed a global, multiyear study in over 180 wetlands across 28 countries and 8 macroclimates using standardized litter as measures of “recalcitrant” (rooibos tea) and...

The biogeochemical cycle of silicon has been extensively studied in terrestrial plants, revealing three beneficial effects of biogenic silica accumulation for this vegetation: structural, physiological and protective. However, its importance in marine plants, particularly seagrasses, which are essential for biogeochemical coupling between terrestri...

Dispersal of reproductive propagules determines recruitment patterns and connectivity among populations and can influence how populations respond to major disturbance events. Dispersal distributions can depend on propagule release strategies. For instance, the bull kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana, can release propagules (spores) from two heights in the...

Deep-ocean seaweed dumping is not an ecological, economical, or ethical answer to climate-change mitigation via carbon ‘‘sequestration.’’ Without sound science and sufficient knowledge on impacts to these fragile ecosystems, it distracts from more rational and effective blue-carbon interventions. We call for a moratorium on sinking seaweeds to deep...

Global trends of ocean warming, deoxygenation, and acidification are not easily extrapolated to coastal environments. Local factors, including intricate hydrodynamics, high primary productivity, freshwater inputs, and pollution, can exacerbate or attenuate global trends and produce complex mosaics of physiologically stressful or favorable condition...

The urgent need to remediate ocean acidification has brought attention to the ability of marine macrophytes (seagrasses and seaweeds) to take up carbon dioxide (CO2) and locally raise seawater pH via primary production. This physiological process may represent a powerful ocean acidification mitigation tool in coastal areas. However, highly variable...

Marine kelp forests cover 1/3 of our world's coastlines, are heralded as a nature-based solution to address socio-environmental issues, connect hundreds of millions of people with the ocean, and support a rich web of biodiversity throughout our oceans. But they are increasingly threatened with some areas reporting over 90% declines in kelp forest c...

The efficacy of marine protected areas (MPAs) may be reduced when climate change disrupts the ecosystems and human communities around which they are designed. The effects of ocean warming on MPA functioning have received attention but less is known about how multiple climatic stressors may influence MPAs efficacy. Using a novel dataset incorporatin...

In September 2022, a group of international collaborators gathered from six European countries (hereby referred to as the ‘working group’) to take part in a workshop at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), Oban. The workshop was funded as part of Marine Scotland’s Blue Carbon International Policy Challenge (BCIPC). The main aim of t...

The global trends of ocean warming, deoxygenation, and acidification are not easily extrapolated to coastal environments. Local factors, including intricate hydrodynamics, high primary productivity, freshwater inputs, and pollution, can exacerbate or attenuate global trends and produce complex mosaics of physiologically stressful conditions for org...

The suggestion that seaweed farming contribute to carbon sequestration below the farms was tested by quantifying, combining organic carbon density with sediment accumulation estimates in soils below seaweed farms, in 21 seaweed farms distributed globally, ranging up to 300 years in operation and 15,000 ha in size. One in every four farms sampled wa...

The Posidonia oceanica seagrass is the foundation species of the coastal Mediterranean, whose meadows support significant ecosystem services: food security, coastal protection, biodiversity maintenance, carbon sequestration, amongst others. This endemic in the basin seagrass features the largest carbon storage among seagrasses globally, contributin...

Sinking vast amounts of seaweed in the deep ocean is currently being proposed as a promising ocean carbon dioxide removal strategy as well as a natural-based solution to mitigate climate change. Still, marketable carbon offsets through large-scale seaweed sinking in the deep ocean lack documentation and could involve unintended environmental and so...

The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is the main habitat-forming species of the coastal Mediterranean, providing millennial-scale ecosystem services including habitat provisioning, biodiversity maintenance, food security, coastal protection, and carbon sequestration. Meadows of this endemic seagrass species represent the largest carbon storage among sea...

Interactions among species are essential in shaping ecological communities, although it is not always clear under what conditions they can persist when the number of species involved is higher than two. Here we describe a three-species assemblage involving the seagrass Cymodocea nodosa, the pen shell Pinna nobilis and the herbivore sea urchin Parac...

Salt marshes and seagrass meadows can sequester and store high quantities of organic carbon (OC) in their sediments relative to other marine and terrestrial habitats. Assessing carbon stocks, carbon sources, and the transfer of carbon between habitats within coastal seascapes are each integral in identifying the role of blue carbon habitats in coas...

Quantifying the strength of non-trophic interactions exerted by foundation species is critical to understanding how natural communities respond to environmental stress. In the case of ocean acidification (OA), submerged marine macrophytes, such as seagrasses, may create local areas of elevated pH due to their capacity to sequester dissolved inorgan...

Global‐scale ocean acidification has spurred interest in the capacity of seagrass ecosystems to increase seawater pH within crucial shoreline habitats through photosynthetic activity. However, the dynamic variability of the coastal carbonate system has impeded generalization into whether seagrass aerobic metabolism ameliorates low pH on physiologic...

Salt marshes and seagrass meadows can sequester and store high quantities of organic carbon (OC) in their sediments relative to other marine and terrestrial habitats. Assessing carbon stocks, carbon sources, and the transfer of carbon between habitats within coastal seascapes are each integral in identifying the role of blue carbon habitats in coas...

We studied the recovery of the fast-growing seagrass Cymodocea nodosa from disturbances of different intensities (shoots removal or the entire plant), plot sizes (from 0.04 to 1 m²) and in different seasons (spring and autumn) in a shallow coastal bay. We monitored recovery over 27 months and measured plant traits at the end. Shoot density and cano...

Seagrass meadows are considered important natural carbon sinks due to their capacity to store organic carbon (Corg) in sediments. However, the spatial heterogeneity of carbon storage in seagrass sediments needs to be better understood to improve accuracy of Blue Carbon assessments, particularly when strong gradients are present. We performed an int...

The zooxanthellate scleractinian coral Oulastrea crispata, a widely distributed species across central Indo-Pacific nearshore marine habitats, has been first reported from the Mediterranean Sea (Corsica) in 2014. Here we report on two new sites for this species in the NW Mediterranean Sea and provide a general description of external morphological...

Ecological research, particularly in marine environments, tends to focus on single habitats and often single spatial scales, and thus not account for ecological processes operating at multiple spatial scales. Here we aim to explore how coastal fish assemblages are influenced by landscape patterns integrating multiple spatial scales, to assess the s...

Long-term ecological studies are crucial to understand how and why natural ecosystems change over time and space. Through a revision of historical data and a comparison with current in situ field data, we contribute to the understanding of how the Mediterranean coastal seascape has changed in the last decades. Here we describe the large decrease of...

Blue carbon” ecosystems, which include tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows, have large stocks of organic carbon (Corg) in their soils. These carbon stocks are vulnerable to decomposition and – if degraded – can be released to the atmosphere in the form of CO2. We present a framework to help assess the relative risk of CO2 emission...

Climate change has increased interest in seagrass systems as natural carbon sinks and recent studies have estimated the carbon stocks associated with seagrass meadows. However, the factors that affect their variability remain poorly understood. This paper assesses how landscape-level attributes (patch size and matrix composition) influence carbon s...

Clipperton Atoll, one of the most isolated coral reefs worldwide, is of great scientific interest due to its geomorphology and high levels of endemism. This study explored the reef fish assemblage structure of Clipperton Atoll and its relationship with live coral cover. Nine stations were sampled at three sites and three depths (6, 12 and 20 m) aro...

The capacity of species to efficiently recover after disturbances is a key component of ecosystem resilience and may depend on several aspects including species features and disturbance characteristics. Seagrass meadows are key, yet threatened, habitats that are affected by both large and small-scale disturbances. In the present study we evaluated...

Biotic and abiotic factors influence the accumulation of organic carbon (Corg) in seagrass ecosystems. We surveyed Posidonia sinuosa meadows growing in different water depths to assess the variability in the sources, stocks and accumulation rates of Corg. We show that over the last 500 years, P. sinuosa meadows closer to the upper limit of distribu...

Biotic and abiotic factors influence the accumulation of organic carbon (Corg) in seagrass ecosystems. We surveyed Posidonia sinuosa meadows growing in different water depths to assess the variability in the sources, stocks and accumulation rates of Corg. We show that over the last 500 years, P. sinuosa meadows closer to the upper limit of distribu...

Seagrass ecosystems, considered among the most efficient carbon sinks worldwide, encompass a wide variety of spatial configurations in the coastal landscape. Here we evaluated the influence of the spatial configuration of seagrass meadows at small scales (metres) on carbon storage in seagrass sediments. We intensively sampled carbon stocks and othe...

The relevance of seagrass meadows in blue carbon storage is now widely acknowledged. However, the evaluation of global budgets has been assessed with limited knowledge on their sources of variability. This might weaken the accuracy of global estimates and leading to estimates not comprehensive enough. Carbon storage capacity depends, primarily, on...

Landscape (or seascape) attributes play an important role in modulating the flow rates of materials between habitats in the coastal marine environment. Seagrass meadows are known to both export and import organic matter, thus establishing links with other habitats. Most of those links remain unexplored, and little is known about the relevance of la...

Seagrass meadows are among the most efficient and long-term carbon sinks on earth, but disturbances could threaten this capacity, so understanding the impacts of disturbance on carbon stored within seagrass meadows—‘blue carbon’—is of prime importance. To date, there have been no published studies on the impacts of seagrass loss on ‘blue carbon’ st...

Landscape attributes play an important role modulating flow rates of materials in marine coastal ecosystems, where movement of nutrients from donor to recipient habitats are important in shaping food webs and productivity. Seagrass meadows establish linkages with other coastal habitats of the coastal seascape that include multiple processes, both a...

Understanding the role of species interactions in structuring ecological communities is one of the challenges of present-day ecology. Positive or facilitative interactions have recently been considered as important mechanisms in shaping communities. Positive interactions may involve engineer species that modify or create habitat for others species,...

Seagrass meadows are important carbon sinks due to its high capacity to store organic carbon in the sediment. This capacity is a result of its high primary production, the refractory nature of its tissues and their capacity to induce deposition of particles from the water column and incorporate them into the sediment. The relative contribution of d...

The importance of detritus in carbon and nutrient fluxes in the coastal zone has been recognized for a long time. However, to which extent detritus dynamics can be affected by seascape attributes, such as habitat connectivity or fragmentation status remains poorly known. Yet those features have potential deep implications on carbon and nutrient exc...

Con el objetivo de evaluar la estructura del ensamblaje de peces arrecifales en el Atolón de Clipperton, se muestreó la riqueza, abundancia y talla de peces arrecifales mediante 25 censos visuales (2 x 25m). Los muestreos se realizaron en tres sitios a tres profundidades (6, 12 y 20 m) durante el mes de marzo del año 2005. Se registraron 46 especie...