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. 2025 May 3:60:111595.
doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2025.111595. eCollection 2025 Jun.

A marine and salt marsh sediment organic carbon database for European regional seas (EURO-CARBON)

Anna Elizabeth Løvgren Graversen  1 , Christian Lønborg  2 , Anna Maria Addamo  3 , Sidsel Gurholt Pedersen  1 , Silvia Chemello  4 , Irene Alejo  5 , Eugenia T Apostolaki  6 , Maria E Asplund  7 , William E N Austin  8   9 , Dimitar Berov  10 , Daniela Berto  11 , Mats Björk  12 , Kirsty Black  13 , Nikola Bobchev  10 , Stefano Bonaglia  14 , Gunhild Borgersen  15 , Tjeerd Bouma  16 , Mark J Costello  3 , Martin Dahl  17 , Elena Diaz-Almela  18 , Panagiotis D Dimitriou  19 , Carlos M Duarte  20 , Carmen Leiva Dueñas  1 , Pavlos T Efthymiadis  6 , Ines Mazarrasa Elosegui  21 , Maria Recio Espinosa  21 , Helena L Filipsson  22 , Marcos Fontela  5   23 , Stein Fredriksen  24 , Helene Frigstad  15 , Karine Gagnon  25 , Catalina A Garcia-Escudero  6   19 , Michele Giani  26   27 , Anne Grouhel-Pellouin  28 , Roberta Guerra  29 , Martin Gullström  17 , Hege Gundersen  15 , Kasper Hancke  15 , Claudia Majtényi-Hill  14 , Corallie Hunt  30 , Karina Inostroza  31 , Ioannis Karakassis  19 , Ventzislav Karamfilov  10 , Stefania Klayn  10 , Katarzyna Koziorowska  32 , Karol Kuliński  32 , Paul Lavery  33 , Wytze K Lenstra  34 , Ana I Lillebø  35 , Ella Logemann  36 , Paolo Magni  37 , Núria Marbà  38 , Candela Marco-Mendez  39 , Marcio Martins  40 , Miguel Angel Mateo  33   39 , Briac Monnier  41   42 , Peter Mueller  43 , Joao M Neto  44 , Nafsika Papageorgiou  45 , Carlos Eduardo de Rezende  46 , Juan Carlos Farias Pardo  47 , Jose Antonio Juanes De La Peña  21 , Gérard Pergent  41 , Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal  5 , Joanne Preston  48 , Federico Rampazzo  11 , Gloria Reithmaier  14 , Thorsten B H Reusch  49 , Sarah Reynolds  48 , Aurora M Ricart  50 , Rui Santos  40 , Carmen B de Los Santos  40 , Isaac R Santos  14 , Eduard Serrano  31 , Oscar Serrano  39 , Caroline P Slomp  34   51 , Craig Smeaton  8 , Montserrar Soler  52 , Ana I Sousa  35 , Timo Spiegel  53 , Angela Stevenson  53 , Jonas Thormar  25 , Hilde Cecilie Trannum  47 , Niels A G M van Helmond  34   51 , Sarah Paradis  54 , Salvatrice Vizzini  55 , Emma A Ward  48 , Yvonne Y Y Yau  48 , Rym Zakhama-Sraieb  56   57 , Imen Zribi  57 , Olga M Zygadlowska  51 , Dorte Krause Jensen  1
Affiliations

A marine and salt marsh sediment organic carbon database for European regional seas (EURO-CARBON)

Anna Elizabeth Løvgren Graversen et al. Data Brief. .

Abstract

Marine and salt marsh sediments contain large amounts of organic carbon (OC) and are therefore important in the global carbon cycle. Here, we collated previously published and unpublished measurements of sediment OC in marine and salt marsh sediments in European regional seas (EURO-CARBON; available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14905489). To the extent possible the OC data were complemented by variables such as sediment porosity and dry bulk density. The EURO-CARBON dataset holds 61306 individual data entries of sediment OC content from different regions of European regional seas. Around three quarters (76%) were collected in coastal and deep sea bare sediments, 18% from salt marshes, 7% from seagrass habitats, and 0.03% from macroalgal habitats. For all habitats and sediment depth layers the OC content varied between <0.1 and 41.56 % (avg.: 2.47 ± 3.37 %; median: 1.39 %), with the content generally decreasing in the following sequence: salt marsh (5.01 ± 5.96 %; 3.03 %) > seagrass (2.37 ± 5.96 %; 3.03 %) > bare sediment (1.88 ± 2.03 %; 1.20 %). The EURO-CARBON dataset will serve as a basis for future work, and it will be an important resource for researchers, managers, and policymakers working towards protecting sediment OC pools.

Keywords: Blue carbon; Marine sediments; Salt marsh; Seagrass; Sediment organic carbon.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig. 1
Histogram (a) showing the distribution of all percent organic carbon content (%OC) observations included in the EURO-CARBON database and box plot (b) of %OC in bare, seagrass and salt marsh sediments. Relationships (c, d) between %OC and the % organic matter (org. matter (%)) and dry bulk density (DBD (g cm−3)), respectively, are also shown. The relationship between carbon density (g C cm−3) and %OC are shown both for raw (e) and log transformed (f) values. The lines in the box plot (b) represent median values, the limits of the boxes represent 25-75 percentiles, and the whiskers the data range. Please note that data from macroalgae habitats are not shown in (b) as these data were only collected in one location.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
(a) Map showing the spatial distribution of the sediment organic carbon (%OC) data entries included in the EURO-CARBON database. Histograms show the number of %OC observations grouped into bins of 10° latitude (b) and longitude (c) for bare, seagrass and salt marsh sediments. Data from macroalgae habitats were not included in (b) and (c) as these data were collected in one location only.
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