Abstract Detail

Climate Change Solutions from Plant Science: The Interaction at the Interface between Terrestrial Ecosystems and Coastal Ecosystems for Carbon Storage

Barr, Jordan [1].

Mangrove Sequestration and Fluxes of Carbon in USA.

The mangrove forests of the Everglades National Park remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, averaging 1000 g C per square meter annually. This makes mangrove forests extreme outliers in terms of their ability to sequester carbon, at least over time scales of days to several years. But what is the fate of all of this carbon? Detailed budgets suggest that the majority (up to 80 percent) is ultimately exported into adjacent coastal rivers as dissolved organic and inorganic carbon and particulate organic carbon. Of recent (a year or less) net primary productivity, closer to 25 percent is delivered to rivers and the coastal ocean as blue carbon. Combining the puzzle pieces of eddy covariance studies, biometric measurements, satellite-based imagery, and hydrologic and oceanographic studies, a complete picture is beginning to emerge. Mangrove forests are major contributors of blue carbon to the coastal ocean in south Florida. Their important role results from a number of synergistic factors, which are 1) high rates of productivity and suppressed respiration, 2) adjacency to the coastal ocean, and 3) intense biogeochemical exchange and physical transport of energy and materials occurring along the many flooded tidal channels and tributaries of coastal rivers.

1 - Elder Research, 300 W. Main St., Suite 301, Charlottesville, VA, 22901, USA

Keywords:
Eddy covariance
Mangrove Forests
Everglades National Park
Net ecosystem exchange
blue carbon.

Presentation Type: Symposium Presentation
Session: SY10, Climate Change Solutions from Plant Science: The Interaction at the Interface between Terrestrial Ecosystems and Coastal Ecosystems for Carbon Storage
Location: Chatham Ballroom - B/Savannah International Trade and Convention Center
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016
Time: 9:00 AM
Number: SY10003
Abstract ID:527
Candidate for Awards:None