Influence of landscape characteristics and submerged aquatic vegetation on sediment carbon and nitrogen storage in shallow brackish water habitats.

While marine seagrass habitats are acknowledged as sinks for carbon and nutrients, much less is known about sequestration in brackish-water vegetation. Here, we quantify the amount of organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (TN) in shallow bay sediments (0-25 cm) in the brackish Baltic Sea and assess how it varies with morphometric isolation from the sea, catchment characteristics and abundance of brackish-water vegetation. The sedimentary C and TN content per surface area varied across the bay isolation gradient (mean C: 2500-4600 g/m; mean TN: 320-570 g/m), with enclosed bays having the highest percentage content of C and TN, but low sediment density (< 0.