Mongabay.com: Bottom-dwelling sea animals play surprising role in carbon sequestration


Members of the echinoderms.
Photo credit: nasivvik.com

Researchers have long known that some marine animals, such as plankton, play big roles in the carbon cycle, but a new study shows that a long-ignored family of marine animals, the bottom-dwelling echinoderms, also do their part in the carbon cycle. Members of the echinoderms—sea stars, sea urchins, brittle starts, sea cucumbers, and sea lilies—capture and store 0.1 gigatons of carbon annually (or 100 million tons), according to a new study in ESA Ecological Monographs. Although only about 1.8 percent of the amount of carbon humans pump into the atmosphere every year, the number is massive and surprising.
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Posted by WILDNEWJERSEY at 1/18/2010 11:00 AM
Categories: Sea Life
Tags: sea cucumbers sea urchins carbon sequestration brittle stars echinoderms sea stars sea lilies
 

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