Journal article 207 views 27 downloads
Organic carbon stocks of Great British saltmarshes
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Lucy C. Miller,
Lucy McMahon,
Ed Garrett,
Natasha L. M. Barlow,
W. Roland Gehrels,
Martin W. Skov,
William E. N. Austin
Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume: 10
Swansea University Author:
Cai Ladd
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Copyright © 2023 Smeaton, Ladd, Miller, McMahon, Garrett, Barlow, Gehrels, Skov and Austin. 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.
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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fmars.2023.1229486
Abstract
Coastal wetlands, such as saltmarshes, are globally widespread and highly effective at capturing and storing 'blue carbon’ and have the potential to regulate climate over varying timescales. Yet only Australia and the United States of America have national inventories of organic carbon held wit...
| Published in: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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| ISSN: | 2296-7745 |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media SA
2023
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65075 |
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| Abstract: |
Coastal wetlands, such as saltmarshes, are globally widespread and highly effective at capturing and storing 'blue carbon’ and have the potential to regulate climate over varying timescales. Yet only Australia and the United States of America have national inventories of organic carbon held within saltmarsh habitats, hindering the development of policies and management strategies to protect and preserve these organic carbon stores. Here we couple a new observational dataset with 4,797 samples from 26 saltmarshes across Great Britain to spatially model organic carbon stored in the soil and the above and belowground biomass of Great British saltmarshes. Using average values derived from the 26 marshes, we deliver first-order estimates of organic carbon stocks across Great Britain’s 448 saltmarshes (451.66 km2). The saltmarshes of Great Britain contain 5.20 ± 0.65 Mt of organic carbon, 93% of which is in the soil. On average, the saltmarshes store 11.55 ± 1.56 kg C m-2 with values ranging between 2.24 kg C m-2 and 40.51 kg C m-2 depending on interlinked factors such as geomorphology, organic carbon source, sediment type (mud vs sand), sediment supply, and relative sea level history. These findings affirm that saltmarshes represent the largest intertidal blue carbon store in Great Britain, yet remain an unaccounted for component of the United Kingdom’s natural carbon stores. |
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| Keywords: |
Coastal; wetlands; soil; vegetation; belowground; storage; United Kingdom; blue carbon |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
This research was finically supported by the Natural Environment Research Council funded Carbon Storage in Intertidal Environments (C-SIDE) project (grant NE/R010846/1) with additional support from the Scottish Blue Forum. |