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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Does Regional Development Influence Sedimentary Blue Carbon Stocks? A Case Study From Three Australian Estuaries
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.5, pp.1-10
14/01/2019
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Abstract
Mitigating climate change through the reduction of atmospheric CO 2 levels is of interest, particularly through maintaining and re-establishing natural ecosystems that act as carbon sinks, such as coastal vegetated habitats or " blue carbon " systems. Here we compare sedimentary blue carbon (C) stocks from 37 sediment cores collected in pristine (n = 13), agricultural (n = 11), and urban (n = 13) estuaries within the same geomorphological region, located on the eastern coast of Australia. The mean estimated C stocks for each carbon system (seagrass, mangrove, and saltmarshes) were 402 ± 78, 830 ± 109, and 723 ± 100 Mg C ha −1 , respectively, conservatively estimated up to 3 m depths. Analysis of variance revealed no significant difference between C stocks per area (C ha −1) considering each habitat type and between specific estuaries. However, the total estuarine C stocks were found to be greater with increasing levels of conservation, based on larger areas of blue carbon vegetation. The potential loss of C to the atmosphere from these small regional estuaries are 500,574 ± 118,635 tons of CO 2 equivalent (CO 2 e), based on specific assumptions. The implication of these results are that there are large C stocks in small regional estuaries which supports the protection of blue C systems in developing coastal areas and highlights the uncertainties of the CO 2 emissions from potential blue C habitat degradation.
Details
- Title
- Does Regional Development Influence Sedimentary Blue Carbon Stocks? A Case Study From Three Australian Estuaries
- Creators
- Stephen Conrad - Southern Cross UniversityDylan R Brown - Southern Cross UniversityPaula Gomez Alvarez - Southern Cross UniversityBronte Bates - Southern Cross UniversityNizam Ibrahim - Southern Cross UniversityAlex Reid - Southern Cross UniversityLuciana Silva Monteiro - Southern Cross UniversityDaniela A Silva - Southern Cross UniversityLea T Mamo - Southern Cross UniversityJacob R Bowtell - Southern Cross UniversityHuang An Lin - Southern Cross UniversityNathaniel L Tolentino - Southern Cross UniversityChristian Joshua Sanders - Southern Cross University
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol.5, pp.1-10
- Publisher
- Frontiers Research Foundation
- Grant note
- This study is was conducted as the field work component of the course “Frontiers in Marine Science I – Biological Systems and Management” at Southern Cross University, National Marine Science Center in 2017 and 2018. CJS was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE160100443) and PGA was supported by a “la Caixa” Fellowship for post-graduate studies.
- Identifiers
- 991012927082102368
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2019 Conrad, Brown, Alvarez, Bates, Ibrahim, Reid, Monteiro, Silva, Mamo, Bowtell, Lin, Tolentino and Sanders. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
- Academic Unit
- School of Environment, Science and Engineering; National Marine Science Centre; Faculty of Science and Engineering; National Centre for Flood Research; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article