scholarly journals Brazilian Mangroves: Blue Carbon Hotspots of National and Global Relevance to Natural Climate Solutions

2022 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre S. Rovai ◽  
Robert R. Twilley ◽  
Thomas A. Worthington ◽  
Pablo Riul
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
National Level ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Woody Biomass ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Blue Carbon ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Amazon Forest ◽  
Nationally Determined Contributions ◽  
Natural Climate

Mangroves are known for large carbon stocks and high sequestration rates in biomass and soils, making these intertidal wetlands a cost-effective strategy for some nations to compensate for a portion of their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, few countries have the national-level inventories required to support the inclusion of mangroves into national carbon credit markets. This is the case for Brazil, home of the second largest mangrove area in the world but lacking an integrated mangrove carbon inventory that captures the diversity of coastline types and climatic zones in which mangroves are present. Here we reviewed published datasets to derive the first integrated assessment of carbon stocks, carbon sequestration rates and potential CO2eq emissions across Brazilian mangroves. We found that Brazilian mangroves hold 8.5% of the global mangrove carbon stocks (biomass and soils combined). When compared to other Brazilian vegetated biomes, mangroves store up to 4.3 times more carbon in the top meter of soil and are second in biomass carbon stocks only to the Amazon forest. Moreover, organic carbon sequestration rates in Brazilian mangroves soils are 15–30% higher than recent global estimates; and integrated over the country’s area, they account for 13.5% of the carbon buried in world’s mangroves annually. Carbon sequestration in Brazilian mangroves woody biomass is 10% of carbon accumulation in mangrove woody biomass globally. Our study identifies Brazilian mangroves as a major global blue carbon hotspot and suggest that their loss could potentially release substantial amounts of CO2. This research provides a robust baseline for the consideration of mangroves into strategies to meet Brazil’s intended Nationally Determined Contributions.

scholarly journals Improving Estimates of Coastal Carbon Sequestration

Eos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Tidal Marsh ◽  
Blue Carbon ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Model Approach

A new two-model approach could reduce uncertainties in calculated rates of “blue carbon” accumulation within soils of seagrass, tidal marsh, and mangrove habitats.

scholarly journals Carbon Stocks and Fluxes in Kenyan Forests and Wooded Grasslands Derived from Earth Observation and Model-Data Fusion

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2380
Author(s):  
Pedro Rodríguez-Veiga ◽  
Joao Carreiras ◽  
Thomas Luke Smallman ◽  
Jean-François Exbrayat ◽  
Jamleck Ndambiri ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Fusion ◽  
Forest Inventory ◽  
National Level ◽  
Woody Biomass ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Earth Observation ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Biomass Carbon ◽  
Model Data ◽  
Essential Information

The characterization of carbon stocks and dynamics at the national level is critical for countries engaging in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. However, several tropical countries, including Kenya, lack the essential information typically provided by a complete national forest inventory. Here we present the most detailed and rigorous national-scale assessment of aboveground woody biomass carbon stocks and dynamics for Kenya to date. A non-parametric random forest algorithm was trained to retrieve aboveground woody biomass carbon (AGBC) for the year 2014 ± 1 and forest disturbances for the 2014–2017 period using in situ forest inventory plot data and satellite Earth Observation (EO) data. The ecosystem carbon cycling of Kenya’s forests and wooded grassland were assessed using a model-data fusion framework, CARDAMOM, constrained by the woody biomass datasets from this study as well as time series information on leaf area, fire events and soil organic carbon. Our EO-derived AGBC stocks were estimated as 140 Mt C for forests and 199 Mt C for wooded grasslands. The total AGBC loss during the study period was estimated as 1.89 Mt C with a dispersion below 1%. The CARDAMOM analysis estimated woody productivity to be three times larger in forests (mean = 1.9 t C ha−1 yr−1) than wooded grasslands (0.6 t C ha−1 yr−1), and the mean residence time of woody C in forests (16 years) to be greater than in wooded grasslands (10 years). This study stresses the importance of carbon sequestration by forests in the international climate mitigation efforts under the Paris Agreement, but emphasizes the need to include non-forest ecosystems such as wooded grasslands in international greenhouse gas accounting frameworks.

scholarly journals Are indigenous territories and community-managed areas effective natural climate solutions? A neotropical analysis using matching methods and geographic discontinuity designs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo Alejo ◽  
Chris Meyer ◽  
Wayne S. Walker ◽  
Seth R. Gorelik ◽  
Carmen Josse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amazon Basin ◽  
National Level ◽  
Spatial Effect ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Neotropical Forests ◽  
Temporal Effects ◽  
Indigenous Territories ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Natural Climate

AbstractIndigenous Territories (ITs) and Community Managed Protected Areas (PAs) with less restriction on forest use than integral PAs may represent cost-effective natural climate solutions to meet the Paris agreement. However, the literature has been limited to examining the effect of ITs and Community Managed PAs on deforestation, despite the influence of anthropogenic degradation. Thus, little is known about the temporal and spatial effect of allocating ITs and Community Managed PAs on carbon stocks dynamics that account for losses from deforestation and degradation. Using Amazon Basin countries and Panama at the national level, and Petén (Guatemala) and Acre (Brazil) at the subnational level, this study aims to estimate the temporal and spatial effects of ITs and PAs on carbon stocks. To estimate the temporal effects, we use annual carbon density maps, matching analysis, and linear mixed models. Furthermore, we explore the spatial biases derived from matching analysis and use geographic discontinuity designs to assess the spatial effect of PAs and ITs boundaries on carbon stocks. The temporal effects highlight that allocating ITs preserves carbon stocks and buffer losses as PAs in Panama and Amazon Basin countries. Community Managed PAs temporal effect on carbon stocks surpasses that of integral PAs in Petén (Guatemala) and Acre (Brazil). The geographic discontinuity designs reveal that ITs and Community Managed PAs boundaries secure more extensive carbon stocks than their surroundings, and this difference tends to increase towards the least accessible areas. These results also suggest that indigenous and community land-use in neotropical forests may have a limited and stable spatial impact on carbon stocks. Our findings imply that ITs and Community Managed PAs in neotropical forests support Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Thus, Indigenous peoples and local communities must become recipients of countries’ results-based payments.

scholarly journals Blue carbon stocks in Baltic Sea eelgrass (<i>Zostera marina</i>) meadows

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Emilia Röhr ◽  
Christoffer Boström ◽  
Paula Canal-Vergés ◽  
Marianne Holmer
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Zostera Marina ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Blue Carbon ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Total Carbon ◽  
Sediment Surface ◽  
Monetary Value ◽  
Over The Top

Abstract. Although seagrasses cover only a minor fraction of the ocean seafloor, their carbon sink capacity account for nearly one-fifth of the oceanic carbon burial and thus play a critical structural and functional role in many coastal ecosystems. We sampled 10 eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows in Finland and 10 in Denmark to explore the seagrass carbon stocks (Corg stock) and the carbon accumulation (Corg accumulation) in the Baltic Sea area. The study sites represent a gradient from sheltered to exposed locations in both regions to reflect expected minimum and maximum stocks and accumulation. The Corg stock integrated over the top 25 cm of the sediment averaged 627g C m−2 in Finland, while in Denmark the average Corg stock was over six times higher (4324 g C m−2). A conservative estimate of the total carbon pool in the regions ranged between 8.6–46.2 t ha−1. Our results suggest that the Finnish eelgrass meadows are minor carbon sinks compared to the Danish meadows, and that majority of the Corg produced in the Finnish meadows is exported. Similarly, the estimates for Corg accumulation in eelgrass meadows in Finland (< 0.002–0.033 t C y−1) were over two orders of magnitude lower compared to Denmark (0.376–3.636 Corg t y−1). Our analysis further showed that > 40 % of the variation in the Corg stocks was explained by sediment characteristics (density, porosity and silt content). In addition, the DistLm analysis showed, that root: shoot- ratio of Z. marina explained > 12 % and contribution of Z. marina detritus to the sediment surface Corg pool > 10 % of the variation in the Corg stocks, whereas annual eelgrass production explained additional 2.3 %. The mean monetary value for the present carbon storage and sequestration capacity of eelgrass meadows at Finland and Denmark, were 346 and 1862 € ha−1, respectively. We conclude that in order to produce reliable estimates on the magnitude of eelgrass Corg stocks, Corg accumulation and the monetary value of these services, more Blue Carbon studies investigating the role of sediment biogeochemistry, seascape structure, plant species architecture and hydrodynamic regime for seagrass carbon storage capacity are in urgent need.

scholarly journals Blue carbon stocks in Baltic Sea eelgrass (<i>Zostera marina</i>) meadows

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 6139-6153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Emilia Röhr ◽  
Christoffer Boström ◽  
Paula Canal-Vergés ◽  
Marianne Holmer
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Zostera Marina ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Blue Carbon ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Sediment Surface ◽  
Dry Density ◽  
Sink Capacity

Abstract. Although seagrasses cover only a minor fraction of the ocean seafloor, their carbon sink capacity accounts for nearly one-fifth of the total oceanic carbon burial and thus play a critical structural and functional role in many coastal ecosystems. We sampled 10 eelgrass (Zostera marina) meadows in Finland and 10 in Denmark to explore seagrass carbon stocks (Corg stock) and carbon accumulation rates (Corg accumulation) in the Baltic Sea area. The study sites represent a gradient from sheltered to exposed locations in both regions to reflect expected minimum and maximum stocks and accumulation. The Corg stock integrated over the top 25 cm of the sediment averaged 627 g C m−2 in Finland, while in Denmark the average Corg stock was over 6 times higher (4324 g C m−2). A conservative estimate of the total organic carbon pool in the regions ranged between 6.98 and 44.9 t C ha−1. Our results suggest that the Finnish eelgrass meadows are minor carbon sinks compared to the Danish meadows, and that majority of the Corg produced in the Finnish meadows is exported. Our analysis further showed that > 40 % of the variation in the Corg stocks was explained by sediment characteristics, i.e. dry density, porosity and silt content. In addition, our analysis show that the root : shoot ratio of Z. marina explained > 12 % and the contribution of Z. marina detritus to the sediment surface Corg pool explained > 10 % of the variation in the Corg stocks. The mean monetary value for the present carbon storage and carbon sink capacity of eelgrass meadows in Finland and Denmark, were 281 and 1809 EUR ha−1, respectively. For a more comprehensive picture of seagrass carbon storage capacity, we conclude that future blue carbon studies should, in a more integrative way, investigate the interactions between sediment biogeochemistry, seascape structure, plant species architecture and the hydrodynamic regime.

scholarly journals From Farms to Forests: Landscape Carbon Balance after 50 Years of Afforestation, Harvesting, and Prescribed Fire

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug P. Aubrey ◽  
John I. Blake ◽  
Stan J. Zarnoch
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
Forest Biomass ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Forest Inventories

Establishing reliable carbon baselines for landowners desiring to sustain carbon sequestration and identify opportunities to mitigate land management impacts on carbon balance is important; however, national and regional assessments are not designed to support individual landowners. Such baselines become increasingly valuable when landowners convert land use, change management, or when disturbance occurs. We used forest inventories to quantify carbon stocks, estimate annual carbon fluxes, and determine net biome production (NBP) over a 50-year period coinciding with a massive afforestation effort across ~80,000 ha of land in the South Carolina Coastal Plain. Forested land increased from 48,714 ha to 73,824 ha between 1951 and 2001. Total forest biomass increased from 1.73–3.03 Gg to 17.8–18.3 Gg, corresponding to biomass density increases from 35.6–62.2 Mg ha−1 to 231.4–240.0 Mg ha−1. Harvesting removed 1340.3 Gg C between 1955 and 2001, but annual removals were variable. Fire consumed 527.1 Gg C between 1952 and 2001. Carbon exported by streams was <0.5% of total export. Carbon from roots and other harvested material that remained in-use or in landfills comprised 49.3% of total harvested carbon. Mineral soil carbon accounted for 41.6 to 50% of 2001 carbon stocks when considering depths of 1.0 or 1.5 m, respectively, and was disproportionately concentrated in wetlands. Moreover, we identified a soil carbon deficit of 19–20 Mg C ha−1, suggesting opportunities for future soil carbon sequestration in post-agricultural soils. Our results provide a robust baseline for this site that can be used to understand how land conversion, forest management, and disturbance impacts carbon balance of this landscape and highlight the value of these baseline data for other sites. Our work also identifies the need to manage forests for multiple purposes, especially promotion of soil carbon accumulation in low-density pine savannas that are managed for red-cockaded woodpeckers and therefore demand low aboveground carbon stocks.

scholarly journals Impacts of land reclamation on tidal marsh ‘blue carbon’ stocks

2019 ◽  
Vol 672 ◽  
pp. 427-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn J. Ewers Lewis ◽  
Jeffrey A. Baldock ◽  
Bruce Hawke ◽  
Patricia S. Gadd ◽  
Atun Zawadzki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tidal Marsh ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Carbon Stocks ◽  
Blue Carbon

Hydrological changes in the Rzecin peatland (Puszcza Notecka, Poland) induced by anthropogenic factors: Implications for mire development and carbon sequestration

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystyna Milecka ◽  
Grzegorz Kowalewski ◽  
Barbara Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł ◽  
Mariusz Gałka ◽  
Mariusz Lamentowicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
Carbon Accumulation ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Poor Fen ◽  
History Of ◽  
Carbon Accumulation Rates

Wetlands are very vulnerable ecosystems and sensitive to changes in the ground water table. For the last few thousand years, hydrological balance has also been influenced by human activity. To improve their cropping features, drainage activity and fertilizing were applied. The drainage process led to an abrupt change of environment, the replacement of plant communities and the entire ecosystem. The problem of carbon sequestration is very important nowadays. A higher accumulation rate is related to higher carbon accumulation, but the intensity of carbon sequestration depends on the type of mire, habitat, and climatic zone. The main aim of this article was an examination of the changes in poor-fen ecosystem during the last 200 years in relation to natural and anthropogenic factors, using paleoecological methods (pollen and macrofossils). The second aim was a detailed investigation of the sedimentary record to aid our understanding of carbon sequestration in the poor fen of temperate zone. This case study shows that fens in temperate zones, in comparison with boreal ones, show higher carbon accumulation rates which have been especially intensive over the last few decades. To reconstruct vegetation changes, detailed palynological and macrofossil analyses were done. A 200-year history of the mire revealed that it was influenced by human activity to much degree. However, despite the nearby settlement and building of the drainage ditch, the precious species and plant communities still occur.

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