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Climate change decreases groundwater carbon discharges in global tidal wetlands
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Climate change decreases groundwater carbon discharges in global tidal wetlands

Xiaoguang Ouyang, Damien T. Maher and Isaac R. Santos
One earth (Cambridge, Mass.), Vol.7(8), pp.1442-1455
16/08/2024

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#13 Climate Action
#14 Life Below Water

Source: InCites

Abstract

Tidal wetlands Groundwater Dissolved carbon Alkalinity Mangroves Tidal marshes Climate change Acidification
Ocean acidification is a grand challenge to sustainable ocean management. Tidal wetlands are distributed from the polar to the tropical domain and provide unique ecosystem services such as groundwater carbon export. The carbonate and bicarbonate of exported dissolved carbon represent total alkalinity and buffer ocean acidification. However, the magnitude and variability of the dissolved carbon discharge from groundwater to the coastal ocean are poorly understood. Here, we estimate groundwater dissolved carbon and total alkalinity discharge by combining data from 337 locations in tidal wetlands. The average annual groundwater total alkalinity and dissolved carbon discharge in global tidal wetlands reach 16.2 (0.1–77.9) and 20.1 (0.1–96.6) Tmol, respectively, of which 83.4% is exported as dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC). Future groundwater DIC discharge decreases by 9.02%–28.91% due to increasing evapotranspiration, changing rainfall regimes, and relative sea level rise. Our study suggests that tidal wetlands export over 30% of terrestrial dissolved carbon to the coastal ocean.

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