Community Structure Dynamics and Carbon Stock Change of Rehabilitated Mangrove Forests in Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Study DescriptionThis project assessed and compared the relative success of mangrove rehabilitation as a carbon sequestration strategy within the framework of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The scope of research involved three separate treatments (disused aquaculture ponds, rehabilitating sites, and reference forests) in two distinct locations, which enabled a comparison across the full spectrum of land-use change. Results emphasize that geomorphology and biophysical site attributes are key factors in selecting rehabilitation sites conducive to maximizing carbon sequestration. Findings from this project will have widespread appeal to coastal researchers, policy makers, and land managers involved in decision making around halting on-going mangrove loss and restoring ecosystem functioning of degraded habitats.

Mangrove blue carbon stocks and dynamics are controlled by hydrogeomorphic settings and land‐use change

“…This study shows that mangrove restoration, if conducted at an adequate scale, has the potential to contribute to Indonesia's NDCs by increasing mangrove carbon stocks and offsetting anthropogenic GHG emissions. This has also been shown at the site scale for other parts of Indonesia (Cameron et al, 2019). There is growing interest in utilizing carbon removals by mangroves in Indonesia and elsewhere to finance restoration activities, by trading carbon credits through the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism or voluntary Payments for Ecosystem Services schemes (Locatelli et al, 2014).…”

“…When carbon emissions associated with mangrove land‐use change are not separately calculated, the magnitude of this ecosystems’ impact on GHG emission management may be underestimated. While previous blue carbon knowledge gaps in Indonesia were associated with the availability of suitable emissions factor data (Murdiyarso et al, 2018), findings and data from this study, along with other studies from other islands such as Kalimantan (Arifanti et al, 2019) and Sulawesi (Cameron, Hutley, Friess, & Brown, 2019), could be used by policymakers to develop science‐based policy and manage blue carbon emissions abatement at the national scale.…”

Effect of land‐use and land‐cover change on mangrove blue carbon: A systematic review

“…Methodologies for mangrove carbon stocks and soil GHG effluxes measurements varied substantially. For example, some studies used direct comparisons of soil carbon stocks at similar soil depths between control and treatment sites (Cameron et al, ; Castillo, Apan, Maraseni, & Salmo, ), but they did not consider soil compaction and subsidence, which will result in an overestimation of carbon density at LULCC‐affected sites. Other studies suggested that this uncertainty could be overcome by applying the soil mass balance approach (Andreetta et al, ; Arifanti, Kauffman, Hadriyanto, Murdiyarso, & Diana, ; Kauffman et al, , ).…”

“…The largest biomass loss resulted from converting high productivity tropical mangroves stands to aquaculture ponds, which resulted in losses of 83% ± 37% or 72 ± 44 Mg C/ha. These losses predominantly occur during the initial establishment of the ponds (Cameron et al, ; Kauffman et al, ). However, ponds are typically abandoned due to very low fish and shrimp production, after 5–10 years (Arifanti et al, ; Bosma et al, ; Cameron et al, 2; Kauffman et al, ).…”

“…In Southeast Asia, the largest threat to mangroves is clear‐felling for conversion to aquaculture ponds (Rahman, Dragoni, Didan, Barreto‐Munoz, & Hutabarat, ; Richards & Friess, ). Although aquaculture generates a high income for at least the first 5–10 years following conversion, productivity declines after this and ponds are abandoned (Bosma, Sidik, Zwieten, Aditya, & Visser, ; Cameron, Hutley, Friess, & Brown, ).…”