Wetland carbon storage controlled by millennial-scale variation in relative sea-level rise

Rogers, Kerrylee; Kelleway, Jeffrey J.; Saintilan, Neil; Megonigal, J. Patrick; Adams, Janine B.; Holmquist, James R.; Meng, Lei; Schile-Beers, Lisa; Zawadzki, Atun; Mazumder, Debashish; Woodroffe, Colin D.

doi:10.1038/s41586-019-0951-7

Cited by 317 publications

(237 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…There are relatively few assessments of fine-scale temporal variability (i.e., 1-5 years) of OC burial rates in coastal wetlands (Kang & Trefry, 2013;Smoak et al, 2013;Breithaupt et al, 2014;Gonneea et al, 2019;Rogers et al, 2019). The more frequent appearance of accretion (mm year −1 ) or mass accumulation (g m −2 year −1 ) rates in the literature has contributed to several analyses noting that these rates often appear to be greater in recent years or decades than they were in the past (Breithaupt et al, 2018;Corbett et al, 2007;Jenkins, 2018;Parkinson et al, 1994;Parkinson et al, 2017).…”

Section: Patterns Of Increasing Carbon Burial and Accretionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Change in relative SLR is the most likely large-scale driver of increased OC burial rates in the region (Gonneea et al, 2019;Rogers et al, 2019;Watanabe et al, 2019;). Accumulation of the large soil C stocks in this region (Jerath et al, 2016) coincides with late Holocene rates of regional SLR that were largely stable over the past seven millennia, followed by mild acceleration in recent centuries (Gerlach et al, 2017;Khan et al, 2017;Scholl, 1964).…”

Section: Potential Mechanisms For Increasing Oc Burialmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increasing Rates of Carbon Burial in Southwest Florida Coastal Wetlands

et al. 2020

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Rates of organic carbon (OC) burial in some coastal wetlands appear to be greater in recent years than they were in the past. Possible explanations include ongoing mineralization of older OC or the influence of an unaccounted‐for artifact of the methods used to measure burial rates. Alternatively, the trend may represent real acceleration in OC burial. We quantified OC burial rates of mangrove and coastal freshwater marshes in southwest Florida through a comparison of rates derived from 210Pb, 137Cs, and surface marker horizons. Age/depth profiles of lignin: OC were used to assess whether down‐core remineralization had depleted the OC pool relative to lignin, and lignin phenols were used to quantify the variability of lignin degradation. Over the past 120 years, OC burial rates at seven sites increased by factors ranging from 1.4 to 6.2. We propose that these increases represent net acceleration. Change in relative sea‐level rise is the most likely large‐scale driver of acceleration, and sediment deposition from large storms can contribute to periodic increases. Mangrove sites had higher OC and lignin burial rates than marsh sites, indicating inherent differences in OC burial factors between the two habitat types. The higher OC burial rates in mangrove soils mean that their encroachment into coastal freshwater marshes has the potential to increase burial rates in those locations even more than might be expected from the acceleration trends. Regionally, these findings suggest that burial represents a substantially growing proportion of the coastal wetland carbon budget.

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Section: Patterns Of Increasing Carbon Burial and Accretionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Mechanisms For Increasing Oc Burialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Rates of Carbon Burial in Southwest Florida Coastal Wetlands

et al. 2020

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“…• Salt marsh sediment carbon accumulation rate (CAR) varied with local relative sea level rise (RSLR) over the past two millennia • Over the previous 2,400 years, the highest CAR was during the most recent 150 years, which coincides with the highest RSLR • The time period to report CAR should be carefully chosen to include contemporary sea level rise but omit labile carbon that will decompose Coastal wetlands can continually drawdown CO 2 from the atmosphere because of their ability to accrete vertically in response to rising sea level, thus, creating a new volume of sediment in which to accommodate additional organic matter (OM; Rogers et al, 2019). Several ecogeomorphic feedbacks in salt marshes allow them to keep pace with sea level rise (Kirwan & Guntenspergen, 2012).…”

Section: 1029/2019jg005207mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coastal wetlands can continually drawdown CO 2 from the atmosphere because of their ability to accrete vertically in response to rising sea level, thus, creating a new volume of sediment in which to accommodate additional organic matter (OM; Rogers et al, ). Several ecogeomorphic feedbacks in salt marshes allow them to keep pace with sea level rise (Kirwan & Guntenspergen, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea Level Rise Explains Changing Carbon Accumulation Rates in a Salt Marsh Over the Past Two Millennia

et al. 2019

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High rates of carbon burial observed in wetland sediments have garnered attention as a potential “natural fix” to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth's atmosphere. A carbon accumulation rate (CAR) can be determined through various methods that integrate a carbon stock over different time periods, ranging from decades to millennia. Our goal was to assess how CAR changed over the lifespan of a salt marsh. We applied a geochronology to a series of salt marsh cores using both 14C and 210Pb markers to calculate CARs that were integrated between 35 and 2,460 years before present. CAR was 39 g C·m−2·year−1 when integrated over millennia but was upward of 148 g C·m−2·year−1 for the past century. We present additional evidence to account for this variability by linking it to changes in relative sea level rise (RSLR), where higher rates of RSLR were associated with higher CARs. Thus, the CAR calculated for a wetland should integrate timescales that capture the influence of contemporary RSLR. Therefore, caution should be exercised not to utilize a CAR calculated over inappropriately short or long timescales as a current assessment or forecasting tool for the climate change mitigation potential of a wetland.

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“…In this setting, vegetation contributes to overall accretion more than mineral sedimentation, and despite relatively high short-term surface accretion rates, created marshes may not persist over time without additional mineral sediment sources (Morris et al 2016). Rogers et al (2019) recently suggested that an increase in vertical accommodation space driven by RSLR may lead to increasing sedimentation and C sequestration; however, the limited tidal exchange and reduced sediment availability in this region may contradict this trend. Mean observed RSLR in this area is 9.5 mm/yr (AE6.33 mm/yr, n = 89; Jankowski et al 2017), which is 1.5 times higher than even the highest longer-term accretion rate we measured in this study, suggesting both created and natural marshes are at risk of drowning in SNWR.…”

Section: Created Marsh Persistencementioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing blue carbon accumulation across a 32‐year chronosequence of created coastal marshes

2019

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Saline coastal marshes are blue carbon ecosystems with relatively high soil carbon (C) stocks and high rates of soil C accumulation. Loss of saline wetlands due to relative sea-level rise, land-use change, and hydrologic alterations liberates previously stored C and reduces the capacity for future C sequestration. Widespread wetland loss has prompted marsh restoration and creation projects around the world; however, little is known about the timescale and capacity for created marshes to function as blue C sinks and the role of environmental conditions in mediating soil C accumulation in restoration sites. Using a chronosequence of five created saline marshes ranging in age from 5 to 32 yr and two adjacent natural reference marshes in southwest Louisiana, USA, short-and longer-term C accumulation rates (SCAR and LCAR, respectively) were determined using feldspar marker horizons and peat depth in cores at six locations in each marsh. Created marshes ranged in elevation from À12 to 41 cm (NAVD88) and supported assorted plant community compositions driven by local environmental conditions. SCAR ranged from 75 to 430 g CÁm À2 Áyr À1 , which were comparable in the two youngest and two oldest marshes. Longer-term CAR ranged from 18 to 99 g CÁm À2 Áyr À1 but did not significantly differ among marshes of different ages.Our findings indicate that LCAR in these created marshes were influenced by site-specific environmental conditions (i.e., stem density and mineral sediment) rather than marsh age. Results suggest that conditions appropriate for the establishment of vegetation with high stem densities, such as Distichlis spicata and Spartina patens, may facilitate higher LCAR in created marshes, which may be useful for restoration project planning and mitigation of climate change.

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Wetland carbon storage controlled by millennial-scale variation in relative sea-level rise

Cited by 317 publications

References 33 publications

Increasing Rates of Carbon Burial in Southwest Florida Coastal Wetlands

Increasing Rates of Carbon Burial in Southwest Florida Coastal Wetlands

Sea Level Rise Explains Changing Carbon Accumulation Rates in a Salt Marsh Over the Past Two Millennia

Factors influencing blue carbon accumulation across a 32‐year chronosequence of created coastal marshes

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