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Inorganic and black carbon hotspots constrain blue carbon mitigation services across tropical seagrass and temperate tidal marshes

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-24, 04:21 authored by John Barry GallagherJohn Barry Gallagher, Vishnu PrahaladVishnu Prahalad, John Aalders

Total organic carbon (TOC) sediment stocks as a CO2 mitigation service require exclusion of allochthonous black (BC) and particulate inorganic carbon corrected for water–atmospheric equilibrium (PICeq). For the first time, we address this bias for a temperate salt marsh and a coastal tropical seagrass in BC hotspots that represent two different blue carbon ecosystems of Malaysia and Australia. Seagrass TOC stocks were similar to the salt marshes with soil depths < 1 m (59.3 ± 11.3 and 74.9 ± 18.9 MgC ha− 1, CI 95 % respectively). Both ecosystems showed larger BC constraints than did their pristine counterparts. However, the seagrass meadows’ mitigation services were largely constrained by both higher BC/TOC and PICeq/TOC fractions (38.0 % ± 6.6 and 43.4 % ± 5.9 %, CI 95 %) and salt marshes around a third (22 % ± 10.2 and 6.0 % ± 3.1 % CI 95 %). The results provide useful data from underrepresented regions, and, reiterates the need to consider both BC and PIC for more reliable blue carbon mitigation assessments to ensure that greenhouse gas emitters do not exceed the ecosystems’ capacity.

History

Publication title

Wetlands

Volume

41

Article number

65

Number

65

Pagination

1-13

ISSN

0277-5212

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Soc Wetland Scientists

Place of publication

810 E Tenth St, P O Box 1897, Lawrence, USA, Ks, 66044

Rights statement

Copyright Society of Wetland Scientists 2021

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Climate change mitigation strategies