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Development of ecosystem carbon stock with the progression of a natural mangrove forest in Yingluo Bay, China

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Abstract

Aims

Mangrove ecosystems play an important role in mitigating climate change with their capacity to sequester and store carbon. Mangrove can store larger amount of carbon in their soil than any other tropical forests in the same latitude. The coastline is a highly dynamic environment, mangroves can develop at the mudflat with stands of different ages paralleling the shoreline. Hence, this study aimed to assess the role of mangrove growth on ecosystem carbon stock.

Methods

Four sites, including natural mangrove stands with different ages (15, 45 and 80-yr-old) and mudflat were selected. Vegetation biomass and the soil carbon content from 0 to 100 cm were analyzed.

Results

Ecosystem carbon stocks (including biomass carbon stocks and 0–100 cm soil organic carbon stocks) of 15-yr-old, 45-yr-old and 80-yr-old stands are 171.57 t ha−1, 274.53 t ha−1 and 380.72 t ha−1,respectively, and are 1.76, 2.82 and 3.91 times higher, than that of the bare mudflat ecosystem (111.23 t ha−1). Moreover, the vegetation carbon stocks in 15-yr-old, 45-yr-old and 80-yr-old forest stands account for 33.78%, 17.74%, and 12.33% of the ecosystem carbon density, respectively. The annual accumulation rates of the ecosystem carbon stocks are 3.61 t ha−1, 3.43 t ha−1 and 2.78 t ha−1 for 15-yr-old, 45-yr-old and 80-yr-old stands, respectively.

Conclusions

The mangrove stand characteristics and its soil properties were changed with the mangrove ages. The contribution of vegetation biomass carbon stock to ecosystem carbon stock increased along the chronology, while the soil showed the opposite pattern. The annual accumulation rate of ecosystem carbon stocks decreased along the chronology.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Research Fund for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41706090 and 41771095) and Forestry Science and Technology Innovation Project of Guangdong (No. 2018KJCX011 and 2019KJCX010). We thank Qian Yue for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript. In addition, the authors benefited from helpful discussions with Pro. Shingyip Lee (CUHK), Yisheng Peng, Lei Ma, Yasong Zhang, Junjie Xie and Yuanhui Zhu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519000, China

    Jianxiang Feng

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering/Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Chenxi Yu & Dongsheng Guan

  3. School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510520, China

    Wang Gang

  4. Department of Geography and resource management, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Duo Lou

  5. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Protection and Utilization/Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou, 510520, Guangdong, China

    Long Wei & Yi Zhou

  6. Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering (Guangdong, Zhuhai), Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519000, China

    Jianxiang Feng

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  1. Chenxi Yu
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  2. Dongsheng Guan
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  3. Wang Gang
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  4. Duo Lou
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Correspondence to Jianxiang Feng.

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Yu, C., Guan, D., Gang, W. et al. Development of ecosystem carbon stock with the progression of a natural mangrove forest in Yingluo Bay, China. Plant Soil 460, 391–401 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04819-3

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