Carbon in the Coastal Seascape: How Interactions Between Mangrove Forests, Seagrass Meadows and Tidal Marshes Influence Carbon Storage

Huxham, Mark; Whitlock, Danielle; Githaiga, Michael N.; Dencer-Brown, Amrit Melissa

doi:10.1007/s40725-018-0077-4

Cited by 77 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 71 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…Seagrass meadows can influence hydrodynamics by reducing current velocity, dissipating wave energy and stabilizing the sediment, leading to local sediment accretion (Potouroglou et al, 2017) and contributing to the protection of whole shorelines as well as facilitating the health of other ecosystems (Guannel et al, 2016). In common with the other "blue carbon" habitats (mangroves and tidal marshes), seagrasses are increasingly recognized as making an important contribution to climate change mitigation because of their ability to sequester carbon in the sediment (Duarte et al, 2005;Mcleod et al, 2011;Githaiga et al, 2017b;Huxham et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seagrass Removal Leads to Rapid Changes in Fauna and Loss of Carbon

et al. 2019

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Seagrass habitats are important natural carbon sinks, with an average of ∼14 kg C m −2 buried in their sediments. The fate of this carbon following seagrass removal or damage has major environmental implications but is poorly understood. Using a removal experiment lasting 18 months at Gazi Bay, Kenya, we investigated the impacts of seagrass loss on sediment topography, hydrodynamics, faunal community structure and carbon dynamics. Sediment pins were used to monitor surface elevation. The effects of seagrass removal on water velocity was investigated using Plaster of Paris dissolution. Sediment carbon concentration was measured at the surface and down to 50 cm. Rates of litter decay at three depths in harvested and control treatments were measured using litter bags. Drop samples, cores, and visual counts of faunal mounds and burrows were used to monitor the impact of seagrass removal on the epifaunal and infaunal communities. Whilst control plots showed sediment elevation, harvested plots were eroded (7.6 ± 0.4 and −15.8 ± 0.5 mm yr −1 respectively, mean ± 95% CI). Carbon concentration in the surface sediments was significantly reduced with a mean carbon loss of 2.21 Mg C ha −1 in the top 5 cm. Because sediment was lost from harvested plots, with a mean difference in elevation of 3 cm, an additional carbon loss of up to 2.54 Mg C ha −1 may have occurred over the 18 months. Seagrass removal had rapid and dramatic impacts on infauna and epifauna. There was a loss of diversity in harvested plots and a shift toward larger bodied, bioturbating species, with a significant increase in mounds and burrows. Buried seagrass litter decomposed significantly faster in the harvested compared with the control plots. Loss of seagrass therefore led to rapid changes in sediment dynamics and chemistry driven in part by significant alterations in the faunal community.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seagrass Removal Leads to Rapid Changes in Fauna and Loss of Carbon

et al. 2019

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“…At the end of their service lives, products may be disposed of in landfills, where conditions may be aerobic, semi-aerobic or anaerobic depending on their management (IPCC, 2006). If materials are kept under anaerobic conditions, their effective storage life can be extended substantially, with very slow decomposition and resultant carbon loss (Wang et al, 2011(Wang et al, , 2015Ximenes et al, 2015Ximenes et al, , 2018Ximenes et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Landfill Storagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been recognised that mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and salt marshes can sequester large amounts of carbon, recently termed "blue carbon" (McLeod et al, 2011;Huxham et al, 2018). It has been estimated to constitute a global carbon sink of at least 200 MtC yr −1 (McLeod et al, 2011) or even more (Breithaupt et al, 2012).…”

Section: Blue Carbonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Carbon in long-term storage" refers to the estimated proportion of waste stored permanently in anaerobic landfill sites. Total disposal estimates were derived from various sources including countries' greenhouse gas inventories for the Waste Sector, population statistics, IPCC documents(IPCC 2006(IPCC , 2014, the European Atlas of Raw Materials(Prognos, 2008) and the World Bank Waste Reports (e.g Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012)…”

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Towards a more complete quantification of the global carbon cycle

et al. 2019

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Abstract. The main components of global carbon budget calculations are the emissions from burning fossil fuels, cement production, and net land-use change, partly balanced by ocean CO2 uptake and CO2 increase in the atmosphere. The difference between these terms is referred to as the residual sink, assumed to correspond to increasing carbon storage in the terrestrial biosphere through physiological plant responses to changing conditions (ΔBphys). It is often used to constrain carbon exchange in global earth-system models. More broadly, it guides expectations of autonomous changes in global carbon stocks in response to climatic changes, including increasing CO2, that may add to, or subtract from, anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, a budget with only these terms omits some important additional fluxes that are needed to correctly infer ΔBphys. They are cement carbonation and fluxes into increasing pools of plastic, bitumen, harvested-wood products, and landfill deposition after disposal of these products, and carbon fluxes to the oceans via wind erosion and non-CO2 fluxes of the intermediate breakdown products of methane and other volatile organic compounds. While the global budget includes river transport of dissolved inorganic carbon, it omits river transport of dissolved and particulate organic carbon, and the deposition of carbon in inland water bodies. Each one of these terms is relatively small, but together they can constitute important additional fluxes that would significantly reduce the size of the inferred ΔBphys. We estimate here that inclusion of these fluxes would reduce ΔBphys from the currently reported 3.6 GtC yr−1 down to about 2.1 GtC yr−1 (excluding losses from land-use change). The implicit reduction in the size of ΔBphys has important implications for the inferred magnitude of current-day biospheric net carbon uptake and the consequent potential of future biospheric feedbacks to amplify or negate net anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

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“…Several studies suggest that connectivity is important to the understanding of the ecosystem processes that underlie blue carbon sequestration (Gillis et al 2014a;Olds et al 2016;Walton et al 2014;Twilley et al 1992). However, only few studies have directly measured carbon stocks (Phang et al 2015) or nutrient fluxes (Huxham et al 2018) across adjacent ecosystems such as tidal flats and seagrass beds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources of Particulate Organic Matter across Mangrove Forests and Adjacent Ecosystems in Different Geomorphic Settings

et al. 2020

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Mangrove forests are among the world's most productive ecosystems and provide essential ecosystem services such as global climate regulation through the sequestration of carbon. A detailed understanding of the influence of drivers of ecosystem connectivity (in terms of exchange of suspended particulate organic matter), such as geomorphic setting and carbon stocks, among coastal ecosystems is important for being able to depict carbon dynamics. Here, we compared carbon stocks, CO 2 fluxes at the sediment-air interface, concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and suspended particulate organic carbon across a mangrove-seagrass-tidal flat seascape. Using stable isotope signatures of carbon and nitrogen in combination with MixSIAR models, we evaluated the contribution of organic matter from different sources among the different seascape components. Generally, carbon concentration was higher as dissolved organic carbon than as suspended particulate matter. Geomorphic settings of the different locations reflected the contributions to particulate organic matter of the primary producers. For example, the biggest contributors in the riverine location were mangrove trees and terrestrial plants, while in fringing locations oceanic and macroalgal sources dominated. Anthropogenic induced changes at the coastal level (i.e. reduction of mangrove forests area) may affect carbon accumulation dynamics in adjacent coastal ecosystems.

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Carbon in the Coastal Seascape: How Interactions Between Mangrove Forests, Seagrass Meadows and Tidal Marshes Influence Carbon Storage

Cited by 77 publications

References 71 publications

Seagrass Removal Leads to Rapid Changes in Fauna and Loss of Carbon

Seagrass Removal Leads to Rapid Changes in Fauna and Loss of Carbon

Towards a more complete quantification of the global carbon cycle

Sources of Particulate Organic Matter across Mangrove Forests and Adjacent Ecosystems in Different Geomorphic Settings

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