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Mangrove forests store high densities of carbon across the tropical urban landscape of Singapore

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Abstract

Tropical forested ecosystems provide multiple ecosystem services to rural and urban landscapes, with carbon storage gaining particular attention. Deforestation due to rural-urban transitions may lead to a reduction in carbon storage ability. Coastal mangrove forests are particularly at risk from deforestation due to their location in the rapidly urbanizing coastal zone, and the city state of Singapore is an extreme example, losing as much as 90 % of its original mangrove cover due to land reclamation and reservoir construction. Knowledge of mangrove ecosystem services may allow better conservation, restoration and incorporation of remaining mangrove patches into the urban landscape. Focusing on the regulating ecosystem service of carbon storage, mangrove carbon stocks have been estimated for Singapore using a combination of field and remote sensing techniques. Biomass carbon showed substantial spatial variation, with old, contiguous mangrove patches containing a higher density of biomass carbon than fragmented, river-fringing or restored mangroves. In total, national biomass carbon equated to 116,117.1 megagrams of carbon (Mg C), and a coarse estimate of the total carbon stock (including soil carbon) suggests that Singapore’s mangroves may store 450,571.7 Mg C. While lower than other regional estimates focused on natural, oceanic mangroves, this is a significant carbon stock for a disturbed, urban mangrove system, and may be equivalent to the average annual carbon emissions of 621,000 residents. This analysis, alongside a review of other urban forest studies, highlights the importance of forested ecosystems such as mangroves in providing a carbon storage ecosystem service to urban areas.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National University of Singapore (R-109-000-141-133) and the Ministry of Education, Govt. of Singapore (R-109-000-147-112). Field data collection was conducted under research permits NP/RP936 and NP/RP13-007a. We thank the Park Managers and staff at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, Pasir Ris and Pulau Ubin for their assistance with site access and data collection. We also thank staff of the National Biodiversity Centre, National Parks Board. The Singapore national mangrove data layer was used with the permission of the National Parks Board. B Thompson, XY Tan, MK Leong, DM Taylor, A Bhardwaj, S Song, WK Lee, L Lin, and J Xie (all National University of Singapore) and D Lee (National Parks Board) assisted with field data collection.

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    1. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, Singapore, 117570, Republic of Singapore

      Daniel A. Friess, Daniel R. Richards & Valerie X. H. Phang

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    1. Daniel A. Friess
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    Correspondence to Daniel A. Friess or Daniel R. Richards.

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    Daniel A. Friess and Daniel R. Richards contributed equally to this work.

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    Friess, D.A., Richards, D.R. & Phang, V.X.H. Mangrove forests store high densities of carbon across the tropical urban landscape of Singapore. Urban Ecosyst 19, 795–810 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-015-0511-3

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