Major Diversities and Classes of Echinoderms
Research Article:
Carbon Impact of Echinoderms
Other Copy of Article

Sarah Champ, Brooke Bode, Lauren Sandstedt

“Echinoderms Contribute To Global Carbon Sink”

Article Summary

Mario Lebrato, a Professor at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science in Germany, recently conducted a study on the Carbon “sink” or storage of Echinoderms. Lebrato’s findings were, at best, alarming. Lebrato estimates that Echinoderms (Sea Urchins, starfish, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, sea lilies, etc.) who inhabit the seabed contribute over one hundred thousand million kilograms of inorganic carbon annually. That means Echinoderms could hold the key to mitigating global warming, but “ocean acidification” and climate change are making oceanic ecosystems unstable, and could be threatening echinoderms.

Echinoderms, like many of the calcifying organisms in the ocean, have the ability to convert carbon from the seawater to storable materials in their bodies. Echinoderm’s skeletons aren’t comprised of raw inorganic carbon; they have the capacity to convert and store the carbon as calcium carbonate.  What Lebrato and other scientists are investigating is what happens when the Echinoderms and other “benthos” that inhabit the sea bed die.

When an Echinoderm dies, typically, their body releases a minute amount of carbon, but the majority of the inorganic carbon is trapped in the sediment at the bottom of the ocean. What the authors of this particular article don’t articulate is what exactly carbon sink and carbon sequestration are. Some carbon sinks actually have the capacity to sequestrate CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.  

What’s alarming is how little is known about the role of forams and echinoderms in the carbon cycle. As Lebrato summates,"The scientific community needs to reconsider the role of benthic processes in the marine calcium carbonate cycle. This is a crucial but understudied compartment of the global marine carbon cycle, which has been of key importance throughout Earth history and it is still at present."

Works Cited

Lebrato, Mario, and Richard Feeley. “Echinoderms Contribute To Global Carbon Sink.” Science Daily (Jan. 2010): n. pag. Ebsco Host. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <http://web.ebscohost.com/‌src/‌detail?vid=5&hid=21&sid=f9902e6c-c93d-48b3-b9af-4a3b4b272c75%40sessionmgr4&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=nfh&AN=16PU903800570>.

“What are carbon sinks?” FERN. EU Environmental Council, 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. <http://www.fern.org/‌campaign/‌carbon-trading/‌what-are-carbon-sinks>.