Erratum: Blue Carbon stocks of Great Barrier Reef deep-water seagrasses (Biology Letters (2018) 12 (20180529) DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0529)

Abstract

In our original paper [1], an error occurred in the calculations of organic carbon values in sediment cores resulting in the reporting of values one order of magnitude less than the actual values. Below we amend incorrect references to the organic carbon values in the text and on the y-axis for figure 2d. (Figure Presented) In the Abstract, the statement regarding OC levels is revised as follows: We found deep-water seagrass (Halophila species) contained similar levels of OC to shallow-water species (e.g. Halodule uninervis) (0.64 ± 0.08% and 8.8 ± 1.6 mg C cm−3, 0.87 ± 0.19% and 13.3 ± 2.7 mg C cm−3, respectively), despite being much sparser and smaller in stature. In the Abstract, the estimation of OC in deep-water seagrass meadows across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is revised as follows: If the OC stocks reported in this study are similar to deep-water Halophila meadows elsewhere within the GBR lagoon (total area 31 000 km2), then OC bound within this system is roughly estimated at 274 million tonnes. In the Results and Discussion sections, the statement regarding organic carbon stocks among different habitats is revised as follows: The greatest differences in both Corg and %OC occurred in deep water, where Halophila habitats (Corg = 8.84 mg cm−3, %OC = 0.64) had approximately nine times the amount of OC of bare sediments (Corg = 1.04 mg cm−3, %OC = 0.08) (figure 2a,d). In the Results and Discussion sections, the statement on the estimation of carbon stocks across the GBR lagoon is revised as follows: While acknowledging the shortcomings of extrapolating from one location across the entire GBR, if we scale-up our mean value of 8.84 mg Corg cm−3 for deep-water Halophila habitat, this would equate to an OC stock of 274 million tonnes in the surface 1 m of sediments of the reef. Figure 2d has been updated by changing mg Corg cm−3 on the x-axis to represent the revised values. The dataset published in Dryad Digital Repository (https:// doi.org/10.5061/dryad.c3m8v25) has been updated with the corrected data values for mg Corg cm−3. Figure S2 in the electronic supplementary material has been updated by changing mg Corg cm−3 on the y-axis to represent the revised values. Because the error was consistent across all organic carbon data, none of the analyses, comparisons, interpretation of results or conclusions in the paper have changed.