Seagrass and tiger shark data

Seagrass conservation is critical for mitigating climate change due to the
large stocks of carbon they sequester in the seafloor. However, effective
conservation and its potential to provide nature-based solutions to
climate change is hindered by major uncertainties regarding seagrass
extent and distribution. Here, we describe the characterization of the
world’s largest seagrass ecosystem, located in The Bahamas. We integrate
existing spatial estimates with an updated empirical remote sensing
product and perform extensive groundtruthing of the seafloor with 2,542
diver surveys across remote sensing tiles. We also leverage seafloor
assessments and movement data obtained from instrument-equipped tiger
sharks, which have strong fidelity to seagrass ecosystems, to augment and
further validate predictions. We report a consensus area of at least
66,000 km2 and up to 92,000 km2 of seagrass habitat across The Bahamas
Banks. Sediment core analysis of stored organic carbon further confirmed
the global relevance of the blue carbon stock in this ecosystem. Data from
tiger sharks proved important in supporting mapping and groundtruthing
remote sensing estimates. This work provides evidence of major knowledge
gaps in the ocean ecosystem, the benefits in partnering with marine
animals to address these gaps, and underscores support for rapid
protection of oceanic carbon sinks.