Increasing green turtle abundance will lead to increased grazing within seagrass habitats—
ecosystems that are important for carbon sequestration and storage. However, it is not well
understood how carbon dynamics in these ecosystems respond to grazing and whether a
response differs among meadows or locations. We measured seagrass ecosystem
metabolism in grazed and ungrazed areas of Thalassia testudinum meadows with
established green turtle foraging areas across the Greater Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico …

This dataset contains ecosystem metabolism and seagrass meadow data from five locations
in the Greater Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico regions at which green turtle populations had
established foraging areas. Ecosystem metabolic rates were compared between grazed and
adjacent ungrazed areas of seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) to investigate the effects of
green turtle grazing on metabolic carbon capture rates in seagrass meadows across a wide
geographic area. Seagrass data are provided for site descriptions and drivers of variation in …