diff --git a/xarray/backends/api.py b/xarray/backends/api.py
index 8891ac2986b..6162ae829a1 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/api.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/api.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 from xarray import backends, conventions
 from xarray.backends import plugins
 from xarray.backends.common import AbstractDataStore, ArrayWriter, _normalize_path
-from xarray.backends.locks import _get_scheduler
+from xarray.backends.locks import _get_scheduler, get_write_lock
 from xarray.core import indexing
 from xarray.core.combine import (
     _infer_concat_order_from_positions,
@@ -1650,7 +1650,11 @@ def to_zarr(
                     "mode='r+'. To allow writing new variables, set mode='a'."
                 )
 
-    writer = ArrayWriter()
+    if any(["storage_transformers" in encoding[var] for var in encoding]):
+        writer = ArrayWriter(lock=get_write_lock("ZARR_SHARDING_LOCK"))
+    else:
+        writer = ArrayWriter()
+
     # TODO: figure out how to properly handle unlimited_dims
     dump_to_store(dataset, zstore, writer, encoding=encoding)
     writes = writer.sync(compute=compute)
diff --git a/xarray/backends/locks.py b/xarray/backends/locks.py
index bba12a29609..ddf0bdf742e 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/locks.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/locks.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 # Neither HDF5 nor the netCDF-C library are thread-safe.
 HDF5_LOCK = SerializableLock()
 NETCDFC_LOCK = SerializableLock()
-
+ZARR_SHARDING_LOCK = SerializableLock()
 
 _FILE_LOCKS: MutableMapping[Any, threading.Lock] = weakref.WeakValueDictionary()
 
diff --git a/xarray/backends/zarr.py b/xarray/backends/zarr.py
index 3b0335aa5a6..42d32892db7 100644
--- a/xarray/backends/zarr.py
+++ b/xarray/backends/zarr.py
@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ def extract_zarr_variable_encoding(
         "filters",
         "cache_metadata",
         "write_empty_chunks",
+        "storage_transformers",
     }
 
     for k in safe_to_drop:
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
index 91daabd12d5..705a5ef8757 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_backends.py
@@ -109,12 +109,27 @@
     KVStore = None
 
 have_zarr_v3 = False
+have_sharding_v3 = False
 try:
-    # as of Zarr v2.13 these imports require environment variable
+    # as of Zarr v2.14 these imports require environment variable
     # ZARR_V3_EXPERIMENTAL_API=1
     from zarr import DirectoryStoreV3, KVStoreV3
 
     have_zarr_v3 = True
+
+    from zarr._storage.v3_storage_transformers import v3_sharding_available
+
+    # TODO: change to try except ImportError when available at the top-level zarr namespace
+    if v3_sharding_available:
+        # as of Zarr v2.14 these imports require environment variable
+        # ZARR_V3_SHARDING=1
+        # TODO: change import to
+        # from zarr import ShardingStorageTransformer
+        # when ShardingStorageTransformer becomes available at the top-level zarr namespace
+        from zarr._storage.v3_storage_transformers import ShardingStorageTransformer
+
+        have_sharding_v3 = True
+
 except ImportError:
     KVStoreV3 = None
 
@@ -2660,6 +2675,39 @@ def create_zarr_target(self):
             yield tmp
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not have_zarr_v3, reason="requires zarr version 3")
+class TestZarrStorageTransformersV3(TestZarrDirectoryStoreV3):
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(not have_sharding_v3, reason="requires sharding")
+    def test_sharding_storage_transformer(self):
+        original = create_test_data().chunk({"dim1": 2, "dim2": 3, "dim3": 2})
+
+        encoding = {
+            "var1": {
+                "storage_transformers": [
+                    ShardingStorageTransformer("indexed", chunks_per_shard=(2, 1))
+                ],
+            },
+            "var2": {
+                "storage_transformers": [
+                    ShardingStorageTransformer("indexed", chunks_per_shard=(2, 2))
+                ],
+            },
+            "var3": {
+                "storage_transformers": [
+                    ShardingStorageTransformer("indexed", chunks_per_shard=(1, 1))
+                ],
+            },
+        }
+
+        with self.roundtrip(
+            original, save_kwargs={"encoding": encoding}, open_kwargs={"chunks": {}}
+        ) as ds1:
+            assert_identical(ds1, original)
+
+        with self.roundtrip_append(original, open_kwargs={"chunks": {}}) as ds2:
+            assert_identical(ds2, original)
+
+
 @requires_zarr
 @requires_fsspec
 def test_zarr_storage_options() -> None: