scholarly journals Reviews and syntheses: Hidden forests, the role of vegetated coastal habitats in the ocean carbon budget

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos M. Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Coastal Habitats ◽  
Global Carbon Budget ◽  
Global Carbon

Abstract. Vegetated coastal habitats, including seagrass and macroalgal beds, mangrove forests and salt marshes, form highly productive ecosystems, but their contribution to the global carbon budget remains overlooked, and these forests remain hidden in representations of the global carbon budget. Despite being confined to a narrow belt around the shoreline of the world's oceans, where they cover less than 7 million km2, vegetated coastal habitats support about 1 to 10 % of the global marine net primary production and generate a large organic carbon surplus of about 40 % of their net primary production (NPP), which is either buried in sediments within these habitats or exported away. Large, 10-fold uncertainties in the area covered by vegetated coastal habitats, along with variability about carbon flux estimates, result in a 10-fold bracket around the estimates of their contribution to organic carbon sequestration in sediments and the deep sea from 73 to 866 Tg C yr−1, representing between 3 % and 1∕3 of oceanic CO2 uptake. Up to 1∕2 of this carbon sequestration occurs in sink reservoirs (sediments or the deep sea) beyond these habitats. The organic carbon exported that does not reach depositional sites subsidizes the metabolism of heterotrophic organisms. In addition to a significant contribution to organic carbon production and sequestration, vegetated coastal habitats contribute as much to carbonate accumulation as coral reefs do. While globally relevant, the magnitude of global carbon fluxes supported by salt-marsh, mangrove, seagrass and macroalgal habitats is declining due to rapid habitat loss, contributing to loss of CO2 sequestration, storage capacity and carbon subsidies. Incorporating the carbon fluxes' vegetated coastal habitats' support into depictions of the carbon budget of the global ocean and its perturbations will improve current representations of the carbon budget of the global ocean.

scholarly journals Reviews and syntheses: Hidden Forests, the role of vegetated coastal habitats on the ocean carbon budget

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos M. Duarte
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Carbon Fluxes ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Marine Biota ◽  
Coastal Habitats ◽  
Global Carbon Budget ◽  
Global Carbon

Abstract. Vegetated coastal habitats, including seagrass and macroalgal beds, mangrove forests and salt-marshes, form highly productive ecosystems, but their contribution to the global carbon budget remains overlooked and these forests remain “hidden” in representations of the global carbon budget. Despite being confined to a narrow belt around the shoreline of the world’s oceans, where they cover less than 7 million km2, vegetated coastal habitats support about 10 % of the global marine net primary production, and generate a large organic carbon surplus, of about 40 % of their NPP, which is either buried in sediments within these habitats or exported away. Large, 10-fold uncertainties in the area covered by vegetated coastal habitats, along with variability about carbon flux estimates, result in a 10-fold bracket around the estimates of their contribution to organic carbon sequestration in sediments and the deep sea from 73 Tg C year−1 to 866 Tg C year−1 , representing up to 1/3 of the biological CO2 removal by marine biota. Up to 1/2 of this carbon sequestration occurs in sink reservoirs (sediments or the deep sea) beyond these habitats. The organic carbon exported that does not reach depositional sites subsidizes the metabolism of heterotrophic organisms. In addition to their significant contribution to organic carbon production and sequestration, vegetated coastal habitats contribute as much to carbonate accumulation as coral reefs do. Whereas globally-relevant, the magnitude of global carbon fluxes supported by salt-marsh, mangrove, seagrass and macroalgal habitats is declining due to rapid habitat loss, contributing to loss of CO2 sequestration, storage capacity and carbon subsidies. Incorporating the carbon fluxes vegetated coastal habitats support into depictions of the carbon budget of the global ocean and its perturbations will improve current representations of the carbon budget of the global ocean.

scholarly journals Large deep-sea zooplankton biomass mirrors primary production in the global ocean

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Hernández-León ◽  
R. Koppelmann ◽  
E. Fraile-Nuez ◽  
A. Bode ◽  
C. Mompeán ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Deep Sea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Zooplankton Biomass ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Global Coupling ◽  
Do So

AbstractThe biological pump transports organic carbon produced by photosynthesis to the meso- and bathypelagic zones, the latter removing carbon from exchanging with the atmosphere over centennial time scales. Organisms living in both zones are supported by a passive flux of particles, and carbon transported to the deep-sea through vertical zooplankton migrations. Here we report globally-coherent positive relationships between zooplankton biomass in the epi-, meso-, and bathypelagic layers and average net primary production (NPP). We do so based on a global assessment of available deep-sea zooplankton biomass data and large-scale estimates of average NPP. The relationships obtained imply that increased NPP leads to enhanced transference of organic carbon to the deep ocean. Estimated remineralization from respiration rates by deep-sea zooplankton requires a minimum supply of 0.44 Pg C y−1 transported into the bathypelagic ocean, comparable to the passive carbon sequestration. We suggest that the global coupling between NPP and bathypelagic zooplankton biomass must be also supported by an active transport mechanism associated to vertical zooplankton migration.

scholarly journals Diatoms Si Uptake Capacity Drives Carbon Export In Coastal Upwelling Systems

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Abrantes ◽  
P. Cermeño ◽  
C. Lopes ◽  
O. Romero ◽  
L. Matos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Coastal Upwelling ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Organic Carbon Burial

Abstract. Coastal upwelling systems account for approximately half of global ocean primary production and contribute disproportionately to biologically driven carbon sequestration. Diatoms, silica–precipitating microalgae, constitute the dominant phytoplankton in these productive regions, and their abundance and assemblage composition in the sedimentary record is considered one of the best proxies for primary production. The study of the sedimentary diatom abundance (SDA) and total organic carbon content (TOC) in the five most important coastal upwelling systems of the modern ocean (Iberia-Canary, Benguela, Peru-Humboldt, California and Somalia-Oman) reveals a global-scale positive relationship between diatom production and organic carbon burial. The analysis of SDA in conjunction with environmental variables of coastal upwelling systems such as upwelling strength, satellite-derived net primary production and surface water nutrient concentrations shows different relations between SDA and primary production on the regional scale. At the global-scale, SDA appears modulated by the capacity of diatoms to take up silicic acid, which ultimately sets an upper limit to global export production in these ocean regions.

scholarly journals Diatoms Si uptake capacity drives carbon export in coastal upwelling systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 4099-4109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Abrantes ◽  
Pedro Cermeno ◽  
Cristina Lopes ◽  
Oscar Romero ◽  
Lélia Matos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Coastal Upwelling ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Nutrient Concentrations ◽  
Organic Carbon Content ◽  
Organic Carbon Burial

Abstract. Coastal upwelling systems account for approximately half of global ocean primary production and contribute disproportionately to biologically driven carbon sequestration. Diatoms, silica-precipitating microalgae, constitute the dominant phytoplankton in these productive regions, and their abundance and assemblage composition in the sedimentary record is considered one of the best proxies for primary production. The study of the sedimentary diatom abundance (SDA) and total organic carbon content (TOC) in the five most important coastal upwelling systems of the modern ocean (Iberia–Canary, Benguela, Peru–Humboldt, California, and Somalia–Oman) reveals a global-scale positive relationship between diatom production and organic carbon burial. The analysis of SDA in conjunction with environmental variables of coastal upwelling systems such as upwelling strength, satellite-derived net primary production, and surface water nutrient concentrations shows different relations between SDA and primary production on the regional scale. On the global scale, SDA appears modulated by the capacity of diatoms to take up silicic acid, which ultimately sets an upper limit to global export production in these ocean regions.

scholarly journals Missing the forest for the trees: A reappraisal of global seaweed carbon sequestration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Barry Gallagher ◽  
Victor Shelamoff ◽  
Cayne Layton
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Sequestration ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Carbon Balance ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Atmospheric Exchange ◽  
Ecosystem Production ◽  
Global Carbon ◽  
Metabolic Carbon

AbstractCurrently, global seaweed carbon sequestration estimates are taken as the fraction of the net primary production (NPP) exported to the deep ocean. The implication is that export is equivalent to net ecosystem production (NEP), and sequestration is the fraction of export that survives remineralisation. However, this perspective does not account for CO2 production fuelled by the consumption of coastal and terrigenous subsidies. Here we clarify: i) the role of export relative to seaweed NEP for systems closed and open to subsidies; and ii) the importance of subsidies by compiling published estimates of NEP from seaweed-dominated ecosystems; and iii) discuss their impact on the global seaweed carbon balance and other sequestration constraints as a mitigation service. Literature values of seaweed NEP were sparse (n = 18) and highly variable. Nevertheless, the average NEP (−9.2mmol C m-2 day-1 SE ± 11.6) suggested that seaweed ecosystems are more likely to be a global source of CO2. Moreover, the seaweeds’ global carbon balance became overwhelmingly heterotrophic (−40.6mmol C m-2 day-1) after accounting for the consumption of exported material. Critically, however, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions must be assessed relative to their replacements ecosystems or states. We found replacement ecosystems such as shellfish reefs and turfs were notably more heterotrophic than seaweed systems, whilst urchin barrens were only marginally less than their seaweed counterparts; a ranking that appeared to be sustained after their amount of exported production had been remineralised. However, in circumstances where CO2 is supplied independently of organic metabolism and atmospheric exchange (e.g. upwelling and calcification), we caution the sole reliance on NEP or NPP in mitigation assessments. Nevertheless, a complete metabolic carbon balance relative to replacement states will ensure a more accurate mitigation assessment, one that does not exceed the capacity of these ecosystems.

scholarly journals Dust deposition in an oligotrophic marine environment: impact on the carbon budget

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1707-1738 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Guieu ◽  
C. Ridame ◽  
E. Pulido-Villena ◽  
M. Bressac ◽  
K. Desboeufs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Atmospheric Deposition ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Carbon Budget ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Saharan Dust ◽  
Surface Mixed Layer ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
The Mediterranean

Abstract. By bringing new nutrients and particles to the surface ocean, atmospheric deposition impacts biogeochemical cycles. The extent to which those changes are modifying the carbon balance in oligotrophic environments such as the Mediterranean Sea that receives important Saharan dust fluxes is unknown. DUNE project provides the first attempt to evaluate the changes induced in the carbon budget of an oligotrophic system after simulated Saharan dust wet and dry deposition events. Here we report the results for the 3 distinct artificial dust seeding experiments in large mesocosms that were conducted in the oligotrophic waters of the Mediterranean Sea in summer 2008 and 2010. Simultaneous measurements of the metabolic rates (C fixation, C respiration) in the water column have shown that the dust deposition did not change drastically the metabolic balance as the tested waters remained net heterotroph (i.e. net primary production to bacteria respiration ratio < 1) and in some cases the net heterotrophy was even enhanced by the dust deposition. Considering the different terms of the carbon budget, we estimate that it was balanced with a dissolved organic carbon (DOC) consumption of at least 10% of the initial stock. This corresponds to a fraction of the DOC stock of the surface mixed layer that consequently will not be exported during the winter mixing. Although heterotrophic bacteria were found to be the key players in the response to dust deposition, net primary production increased about twice in case of simulated wet deposition (that includes anthropogenic nitrogen) and a small fraction of particulate organic carbon was still exported. Our estimated carbon budgets are an important step forward in the way we understand dust deposition and associated impacts on the oceanic cycles. They are providing knowledge about the key processes (i.e. bacteria respiration, aggregation) that need to be considered for an integration of atmospheric deposition in marine biogeochemical modeling.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document