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Journal article
Beyond habitat boundaries: Organic matter cycling requires a system-wide approach for accurate blue carbon accounting
Limnology and oceanography
26 Mar 2022
Featured in Collection : Research Supported by Drexel Libraries' OA Programs
Abstract
As coastal ecosystems become widely recognized for their capacity to sequester carbon (blue carbon), standard accounting methodologies for the generation of carbon credits are being developed. To ensure the applicability of these standards across blue carbon ecosystems, we investigated organic carbon provenance and burial in salt marshes and seagrass meadows of an arid, upwelling-dominated Eastern Pacific lagoon. We found low carbon density in benthic sediments of Bahia de San Quintin (5.9 +/- 0.5 mg C cm(-3)), only marginally higher in Zostera marina beds (6.9 +/- 0.5 mg C cm(-3)), likely due to remineralization and hydrodynamically driven export of seagrass material, resulting in low carbon burial rates (4.5 +/- 2.5 g C m(-2) yr(-1)). Sediment organic carbon is mainly controlled by the fraction of fine sediment and its source is largely allochthonous, although sources differ spatially. Salt marshes at San Quintin derive 40% of their organic matter from autochthonous material and exhibit higher carbon burial rates (up to 414.7 +/- 28.6 g C m(-2) yr(-1)) and sediment carbon densities (32.0 +/- 0.7 mg C cm(-3)) compared to benthic sediments. This study emphasizes the connectivity of blue carbon habitats with marsh plant detritus supplementing benthic carbon burial and incorporation of detrital eelgrass in marsh sediments. Our findings highlight the importance of allochthonous organic matter for carbon sequestration in blue carbon habitats, suggesting standard accounting practices that deduct allochthonous organic matter would miss the full potential for carbon burial.
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Details
- Title
- Beyond habitat boundaries: Organic matter cycling requires a system-wide approach for accurate blue carbon accounting
- Creators
- Johannes Renke Krause - Florida International UniversityAlejandro Hinojosa-Corona - Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education at EnsenadaAndrew B. Gray - University of California, RiversideJuan Carlos Herguera - Ctr Invest Cient & Educ Super Ensenada, Dept Geol, Ensenada, Baja California, MexicoJulianna McDonnell - University of California, RiversideMichael Schaefer - New Mexico Institute of Mining and TechnologySamantha C. Ying - University of California, RiversideElizabeth Burke Watson - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Limnology and oceanography
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 13
- Grant note
- Government of Saskatchewan Geological Society of America Graduate Student Field Grant CN-16-147 / UC Mexus-CONACYT collaborative grant; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) CA-R-ENS-5120-H / USDA NIFA Hatch project Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); CGIAR National Research Council Canada William L. McLean III Fellowship Canada Foundation for Innovation; CGIAR Western Economic Diversification Canada University of Saskatchewan W4188 / USDA Multi-State Project Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000773278100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85127281954
- Other Identifier
- 991019182781104721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Limnology
- Oceanography