Hilary Kennedy

Abstract Blue carbon ecosystems, classically defined as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses, but increasingly expanded to include ecosystems such as tidal flats, macroalgal forests and shelf sediments, contribute to climate change mitigation and biodiversity support.

Abstract Seagrass ecosystems are recognized for their capacity to sequester and store organic carbon, but there is large variability in soil organic carbon stocks associated with plant traits and environmental conditions, making the quantification and scaling of carbon storage and fluxes needed to contribute to climate change mitigation highly challenging.

We acknowledge the letter to the editor by Williamson et al. (2025) commenting on our article and note that there is a similarity in the published exchange regarding the Australian blue carbon (BC) method (Lovelock et al. 2023). 1 Climate Mitigation in Blue Carbon Ecosystems Williamson et al. (2025) incorrectly state that targeted management interventions to protect vulnerable stores of carbon in blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) are not a valid and permissible climate mitigation strategy.