Endemic Mediterranean seagrasses poised to survive climate change challenges

This dataset contains in-situ metabolic measurements from benthic chamber incubations conducted on Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Civitavecchia, Italy) from February to October 2023. The primary data file (Data.xlsx) includes seasonal measurements of community respiration (CR), net community production (NCP), and gross community production (GCP), expressed as dissolved oxygen fluxes (mmol O₂ g⁻¹ fresh weight m⁻² d⁻¹), along with corresponding water temperatures (11–29°C) and sampling dates.

The repository also includes nine fully documented R scripts that implement: (1) thermal performance curve (TPC) fitting using the rTPC package with 999 bootstrap iterations for uncertainty quantification; (2) spatial predictions of NCP across the Mediterranean basin using Sea Surface Temperature data from Copernicus Marine Service; and (3) ecosystem services calculations (oxygen production, CO₂ absorption, carbon fixation) under present and future climate scenarios (RCP 4.5 and 8.5 for 2050).

These data enable researchers to: reproduce all analyses and figures from the associated publication; develop alternative thermal performance models for P. oceanica; validate metabolic predictions against independent datasets; and extend spatial projections to other climate scenarios or time horizons. The standardized benthic chamber methodology and comprehensive metadata facilitate comparisons with seagrass metabolism studies from other Mediterranean locations.

External data sources (SST rasters, Posidonia distribution shapefiles) are documented with access instructions but not included due to third-party licensing.