slide1There are about 20 billion tons of carbon sequenstered in living seagrasses.  About 10% of this, or 2 billion tons, are contained in (poly)phenolic substances.  These substances are likely to influence the fate of the other 90% of the stored carbon as they influence rates of decomposition, grazing, and pathogen infection.  We discussed some of this in our short presentation on the impacts of climate change on seagrass natural products this week.