(7/7) You can read the full paper here: rdcu.be/d4eS4

This has been a team effort with colleagues from #LEMAR, #UAntwerp, @imedea.bsky.social, @global-change-res.bsky.social, #ICM-CSIC and #IIM-CSIC, funded by #ISBlue and #CampusFranceSpain

(6/n) In the Bay of Brest, the seagrass silicon reservoir was estimated at 0.18±0.07 g Si m-2, similar to that of benthic diatoms, underscoring the potential role of seagrasses in silicon biogeochemistry in the land-ocean continuum, where they may act as a buffer for silicon transport to the ocean.

(5/n) 2️⃣ a resistant form, only digested with acid digestion, which would contribute to the ecosystem's buried silica stock and coupled carbon sequestration.

(4/n) 1️⃣ a labile form digested with the alkaline method, which we hypothesised will be recycled upon leaf degradation, benefiting siliceous organisms (diatoms, sponges, Rhizaria, macrophytes, etc)

(3/n) ...of the species /Zostera marina/ and evaluated its silicon reservoir at the ecosystem level, using the Bay of Brest as a case study.

The results revealed that seagrass leaves contained 0.26% silicon:dry weight, which is accumulated in two forms of silica:

(2/n) In this study, we explored the role of seagrass ecosystems in the silicon cycle, which remained largely unexplored. For this, we used for the first time in seagrasses two methods, the wet-alkaline digestion and the hydrofluoric acid digestion, to investigate the silicon stock in the leaves...