Poster Abstract: Posidonia oceanica meadows are among the most important coastal ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea, providing a wide range of ecosystem services, including the long-term storage of organic carbon within their sediments. This capacity highlights their role as blue carbon ecosystems and underlines their importance in the context of climate change mitigation. However, sedimentary organic carbon content can vary considerably among meadows and geographic regions, reflecting differences in environmental conditions, meadow characteristics and sediment properties.
This study aims to investigate spatial patterns of sedimentary organic carbon in P. oceanica meadows across the Adriatic–Ionian region and to place these observations within the broader context of Mediterranean P. oceanica ecosystems. Sediment cores were collected from four geographically distinct areas: the Falasarna Natura 2000 site in western Crete, the Plemmirio Marine Protected Area in Sicily, the Karaburun–Sazan National Marine Park in Albania, and the Žut–Sit island group in Croatia. Sediment cores were sectioned into discrete layers and analyzed for organic carbon content using the loss-on-ignition approach.
Organic carbon values will be compared among the four study areas to explore regional variability along the Adriatic–Ionian gradient. In addition, the newly generated data will be evaluated against a broader Mediterranean dataset of P. oceanica sediment cores, providing a wider reference framework for interpreting regional patterns of carbon accumulation. By combining newly collected field data with an extensive Mediterranean dataset, this study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the spatial variability of sedimentary organic carbon in P. oceanica meadows and provides a regional perspective on their role as blue carbon ecosystems.