Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes

Smeaton, Craig; Garrett, Ed; Koot, Martha B.; Ladd, Cai; Miller, Lucy C.; McMahon, Lucy; Foster, Bradley; Barlow, Natasha L.M.; Blake, William; Gehrels, W. Roland; Skov, Martin W.; Austin, William E.N.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172104

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Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes

Craig Smeaton, Ed Garrett, Martha B. Koot, Cai Ladd

, Lucy C. Miller, Lucy McMahon, Bradley Foster, Natasha L.M. Barlow, William Blake, W. Roland Gehrels, Martin W. Skov, William E.N. Austin

Science of The Total Environment, Volume: 926, Start page: 172104

Swansea University Author: Cai Ladd

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172104

Abstract

Saltmarshes are a crucial component of the coastal carbon (C) system and provide a natural climate regulation service through the accumulation and long-term storage of organic carbon (OC) in their soils. These coastal ecosystems are under growing pressure from a changing climate and increasing anthr...

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Published in:	Science of The Total Environment
ISSN:	0048-9697
Published:	Elsevier BV 2024
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URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66238
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To manage and protect these ecosystems for C and to allow their inclusion in emissions and natural-capital accounting, as well as carbon markets, accurate and reliable estimates of OC accumulation are required. However, globally, such data are rare or of varying quality. Here, we quantify sedimentation rates and OC densities for 21 saltmarshes in Great Britain (GB). We estimate that, on average, saltmarshes accumulate OC at a rate of 110.88 ± 43.12 g C m−2 yr−1. This is considerably less than widely applied global saltmarsh averages. It is therefore highly likely that the contribution of northern European saltmarshes to global saltmarsh OC accumulation has been significantly overestimated. Taking account of the climatic, geomorphological, oceanographic, and ecological characteristics of all GB saltmarshes and the areal extent of different saltmarsh zones, we estimate that the 451.65 km2 of GB saltmarsh accumulates 46,563 ± 4353 t of OC annually. These low OC accumulation rates underline the importance of the 5.20 ± 0.65 million tonnes of OC already stored in these vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Going forward the protection and preservation of the existing stores of OC in GB saltmarshes must be a priority for the UK as this will provide climate benefits through avoided emissions several times more significant than the annual accumulation of OC in these ecosystems.</abstract><type>Journal Article</type><journal>Science of The Total Environment</journal><volume>926</volume><journalNumber/><paginationStart>172104</paginationStart><paginationEnd/><publisher>Elsevier BV</publisher><placeOfPublication/><isbnPrint/><isbnElectronic/><issnPrint>0048-9697</issnPrint><issnElectronic/><keywords>Coastal; Blue carbon; Wetlands; Radionuclide; Climate; Nature-based solutions</keywords><publishedDay>20</publishedDay><publishedMonth>5</publishedMonth><publishedYear>2024</publishedYear><publishedDate>2024-05-20</publishedDate><doi>10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172104</doi><url/><notes/><college>COLLEGE NANME</college><department>Biosciences Geography and Physics School</department><CollegeCode>COLLEGE CODE</CollegeCode><DepartmentCode>BGPS</DepartmentCode><institution>Swansea University</institution><apcterm>Another institution paid the OA fee</apcterm><funders>This research was financially 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. 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spelling	v2 66238 2024-05-02 Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes 134c870190db4c365e2ccc2d6c107462 0000-0001-5437-6474 Cai Ladd Cai Ladd true false 2024-05-02 BGPS Saltmarshes are a crucial component of the coastal carbon (C) system and provide a natural climate regulation service through the accumulation and long-term storage of organic carbon (OC) in their soils. These coastal ecosystems are under growing pressure from a changing climate and increasing anthropogenic disturbance. To manage and protect these ecosystems for C and to allow their inclusion in emissions and natural-capital accounting, as well as carbon markets, accurate and reliable estimates of OC accumulation are required. However, globally, such data are rare or of varying quality. Here, we quantify sedimentation rates and OC densities for 21 saltmarshes in Great Britain (GB). We estimate that, on average, saltmarshes accumulate OC at a rate of 110.88 ± 43.12 g C m−2 yr−1. This is considerably less than widely applied global saltmarsh averages. It is therefore highly likely that the contribution of northern European saltmarshes to global saltmarsh OC accumulation has been significantly overestimated. Taking account of the climatic, geomorphological, oceanographic, and ecological characteristics of all GB saltmarshes and the areal extent of different saltmarsh zones, we estimate that the 451.65 km2 of GB saltmarsh accumulates 46,563 ± 4353 t of OC annually. These low OC accumulation rates underline the importance of the 5.20 ± 0.65 million tonnes of OC already stored in these vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Going forward the protection and preservation of the existing stores of OC in GB saltmarshes must be a priority for the UK as this will provide climate benefits through avoided emissions several times more significant than the annual accumulation of OC in these ecosystems. Journal Article Science of The Total Environment 926 172104 Elsevier BV 0048-9697 Coastal; Blue carbon; Wetlands; Radionuclide; Climate; Nature-based solutions 20 5 2024 2024-05-20 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172104 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This research was financially 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. Radiocarbon dating was supported by the National Environment Isotope Facility Radiocarbon (Environment) Laboratory (allocation 2351.0321). 2024-06-17T16:22:42.4538710 2024-05-02T13:52:35.7717071 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography Craig Smeaton 1 Ed Garrett 2 Martha B. Koot 3 Cai Ladd 0000-0001-5437-6474 4 Lucy C. Miller 5 Lucy McMahon 6 Bradley Foster 7 Natasha L.M. Barlow 8 William Blake 9 W. Roland Gehrels 10 Martin W. Skov 11 William E.N. Austin 12 66238__30232__89b6d2de4e3143e2808d05934a4a5180.pdf 66238.pdf 2024-05-02T13:54:55.9699561 Output 6569683 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
spellingShingle	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes Cai Ladd
title_short	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
title_full	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
title_fullStr	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
title_full_unstemmed	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
title_sort	Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes
author_id_str_mv	134c870190db4c365e2ccc2d6c107462
author_id_fullname_str_mv	134c870190db4c365e2ccc2d6c107462_***_Cai Ladd
author	Cai Ladd
author2	Craig Smeaton Ed Garrett Martha B. Koot Cai Ladd Lucy C. Miller Lucy McMahon Bradley Foster Natasha L.M. Barlow William Blake W. Roland Gehrels Martin W. Skov William E.N. Austin
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container_title	Science of The Total Environment
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container_start_page	172104
publishDate	2024
institution	Swansea University
issn	0048-9697
doi_str_mv	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172104
publisher	Elsevier BV
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description	Saltmarshes are a crucial component of the coastal carbon (C) system and provide a natural climate regulation service through the accumulation and long-term storage of organic carbon (OC) in their soils. These coastal ecosystems are under growing pressure from a changing climate and increasing anthropogenic disturbance. To manage and protect these ecosystems for C and to allow their inclusion in emissions and natural-capital accounting, as well as carbon markets, accurate and reliable estimates of OC accumulation are required. However, globally, such data are rare or of varying quality. Here, we quantify sedimentation rates and OC densities for 21 saltmarshes in Great Britain (GB). We estimate that, on average, saltmarshes accumulate OC at a rate of 110.88 ± 43.12 g C m−2 yr−1. This is considerably less than widely applied global saltmarsh averages. It is therefore highly likely that the contribution of northern European saltmarshes to global saltmarsh OC accumulation has been significantly overestimated. Taking account of the climatic, geomorphological, oceanographic, and ecological characteristics of all GB saltmarshes and the areal extent of different saltmarsh zones, we estimate that the 451.65 km2 of GB saltmarsh accumulates 46,563 ± 4353 t of OC annually. These low OC accumulation rates underline the importance of the 5.20 ± 0.65 million tonnes of OC already stored in these vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Going forward the protection and preservation of the existing stores of OC in GB saltmarshes must be a priority for the UK as this will provide climate benefits through avoided emissions several times more significant than the annual accumulation of OC in these ecosystems.
published_date	2024-05-20T16:22:40Z
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Organic carbon accumulation in British saltmarshes

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