Abstract
Mangroves can store more sediment organic carbon (SOC) than freshwater and salt marshes. Understanding how mangroves have responded to historical sea-level rise (SLR) is fundamental to assessing their resilience and capacity to store carbon as SLR accelerates. We quantified landscape-level temporal and spatial trends in historical coastal wetland sediment accumulation and associated SOC content (i.e., storage) along coastal-to-inland gradients in Southeast Florida. The observed trends were transgressive and attributed to the historical rise in sea level. Our results indicate an overall significant increase in the SOC content of the historic wetland sediment succession caused by the vertical accumulation and landward migration of carbon-rich mangrove-dominated plant communities (mean = 0.08 g cm−3) into and over carbon-poor wet prairie plant communities (mean = 0.02 g cm−3). The observed historical increase in SOC is predicted to diminish over time as the difference between rates of SLR and vertical sediment accumulation increases and because the landward migration of mangrove-dominated plant communities is now obstructed by a shore-parallel flood-control levee. These results are likely to unfold in other low-latitude coastal wetlands where they are sandwiched between rising seas and an urbanized landscape.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alongi DM (2014) Carbon cycling and storage in mangrove forests. Annual Review of Marine Science 6:195–219. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010213-135020
Armitage AR, Highfield WE, Brody SD, Louchouarn P (2015) The contribution of mangrove expansion to salt marsh loss on the Texas Gulf Coast. PLoS One 10:e0125404. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125404
Atwood TB, Connolly RM, Almahasheer H, Carnell PE, Duarte CM, Ewers Lewis CJ, Irigoien X, Kelleway JJ, Lavery PS, Macreadie PI, Serrano O, Sanders CJ, Santos I, Steven ADL, Lovelock CE (2017) Global patterns in mangrove soil carbon stocks and losses. Nature Climate Change 7:523–528. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3326
Breithaupt JL, Smoak JM, Smith TJ, Sanders CJ (2014) Temporal variability of carbon and nutrient burial, sediment accretion, and mass accumulation over the past century in a carbonate platform mangrove forest of the Florida Everglades: carbon burial in the Coastal Everglades. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 119:2032–2048. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JG002715
Breithaupt JL, Smoak JM, Rivera-Monroy VH, Castañeda-Moya E, Moyer RP, Simard M, Sanders CJ (2017) Partitioning the relative contributions of organic matter and mineral sediment to accretion rates in carbonate platform mangrove soils. Marine Geology 390:170–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.07.002
Breithaupt JL, Smoak JM, Bianchi TS et al (2020) Increasing rates of carbon burial in Southwest Florida Coastal Wetlands. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JG005349
Cahoon DR (2015) Estimating Relative Sea-level rise and submergence potential at a coastal wetland. Estuaries and Coasts 38:1077–1084. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-014-9872-8
Chambers LG, Steinmuller HE, Breithaupt JL (2019) Toward a mechanistic understanding of “peat collapse” and its potential contribution to coastal wetland loss. Ecology e02720. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2720
Charles SP, Kominoski JS, Troxler TG, Gaiser EE, Servais S, Wilson BJ, Davis SE, Sklar FH, Coronado-Molina C, Madden CJ, Kelly S, Rudnick DT (2019) Experimental saltwater intrusion drives rapid soil elevation and carbon loss in freshwater and Brackish Everglades marshes. Estuaries and Coasts 42:1868–1881. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00620-3
Charles SP, Kominoski JS, Armitage AR, Guo H, Weaver CA, Pennings SC (2020) Quantifying how changing mangrove cover affects ecosystem carbon storage in coastal wetlands. Ecology 101:e02916. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2916
Chen I-C, Hill JK, Ohlemuller R, Roy DB, Thomas CD (2011) Rapid range shifts of species associated with high levels of climate warming. Science 333:1024–1026. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1206432
Dean WE (1974) Determination of carbonate and organic matter in calcareous sediments and sedimentary rocks by loss on ignition; comparison with other methods. Journal of Sedimentary Research 44:242–248. https://doi.org/10.1306/74D729D2-2B21-11D7-8648000102C1865D
DeLaune RD, Nyman JA, Patrick WH Jr (1994) Peat collapse, ponding and wetland loss in a rapidly submerging coastal marsh. Journal of Coastal Research 10:1021–1030
Donato DC, Kauffman JB, Murdiyarso D, Kurnianto S, Stidham M, Kanninen M (2011) Mangroves among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics. Nature Geoscience 4:293–297. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1123
Dontis EE, Radabaugh KR, Chappel AR, Russo CE, Moyer RP (2020) Carbon storage increases with site age as created salt marshes transition to mangrove forests in Tampa Bay, Florida (USA). Estuaries and Coasts. 43:1470–1488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00733-0
Ellison AM (2021) Personal communication
Gaiser EE, Zafiris A, Ruiz PL, Tobias FAC, Ross MS (2006) Tracking rates of ecotone migration due to salt-water encroachment using fossil mollusks in coastal South Florida. Hydrobiologia 569:237–257
Gonneea ME, Maio CV, Kroeger KD, Hawkes AD, Mora J, Sullivan R, Madsen S, Buzard RM, Cahill N, Donnelly JP (2019) Salt marsh ecosystem restructuring enhances elevation resilience and carbon storage during accelerating relative sea-level rise. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 217:56–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2018.11.003
Grieger R, Capon S, Hadwen W (2019) Resilience of coastal freshwater wetland vegetation of subtropical Australia to rising sea levels and altered hydrology. Regional Environmental Change 19:279–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-018-1399-2
Hothorn T, Bretz F, Westfall P (2008) Simultaneous inference in general parametric models. Biometrical Journal 50:346–363. https://doi.org/10.1002/bimj.200810425
Johnson PCD (2014) Extension of Nakagawa & Schielzeth’s R2GLMM to random slopes models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 5:944–946. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12225
Krauss KW, From AS, Doyle TW, Doyle TJ, Barry MJ (2011) Sea-level rise and landscape change influence mangrove encroachment onto marsh in the ten Thousand Islands region of Florida, USA. Journal of Coastal Conservation 15:629–638. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-011-0153-4
Lamont K, Saintilan N, Kelleway JJ, Mazumder D, Zawadzki A (2020) Thirty-year repeat measures of mangrove above- and below-ground biomass reveals unexpectedly high carbon sequestration. Ecosystems 23:370–382. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-019-00408-3
Leo KL (2019) Coastal habitat squeeze_ a review of adaptation solutions for saltmarsh, mangrove and beach habitats. Ocean and Coastal Management 11
Maul GA, Martin DM (2015) Merged Miami Sea level. Marine Geodesy 38:277–280. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490419.2015.1014584
Mazzei V, Gaiser EE, Kominoski JS, Wilson BJ, Servais S, Bauman L, Davis SE, Kelly S, Sklar FH, Rudnick DT, Stachelek J, Troxler TG (2018) Functional and compositional responses of Periphyton Mats to simulated saltwater intrusion in the Southern Everglades. Estuaries and Coasts. 41:2105–2119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-018-0415-6
Meeder JF, Parkinson RW (2018) SE Saline Everglades transgressive sedimentation in response to historic acceleration in sea-level rise: a viable marker for the base of the Anthropocene? Journal of Coastal Research 342:490–497. https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-17-00031.1
Meeder JF, Parkinson RW, Ruiz PL, Ross MS (2017) Saltwater encroachment and prediction of future ecosystem response to the Anthropocene marine transgression, southeast Saline Everglades, Florida. Hydrobiologia 803:29–48
Middleton GV (1973) Johannes Walther’s law of the correlation of Facies. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84:979–988
Nakagawa S, Schielzeth H (2013) A general and simple method for obtaining R2 from generalized linear mixed-effects models. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4:133–142. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00261.x
Oppenheimer M, Glavovic BC, Hinkel J, et al (2019) Sea level rise and implications for low-Lying Islands, coasts and communities. IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. IPCC, p 126
Osland MJ, Feher LC, Anderson GH, Vervaeke WC, Krauss KW, Whelan KRT, Balentine KM, Tiling-Range G, Smith TJ III, Cahoon DR (2020a) A tropical cyclone-induced ecological regime shift: mangrove Forest conversion to mudflat in Everglades National Park (Florida, USA). Wetlands 40:1445–1458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-020-01291-8
Park J, Sweet W (2015) Accelerated Sea level rise and Florida current transport. Ocean Science 11:607–615. https://doi.org/10.5194/os-11-607-2015
Parkinson RW, DeLaune RD, White JR (1994) Holocene Sea level rise and the fate of mangrove forest within the wider Caribbean region.Pdf. Journal of Coastal Research 10:1077–1086
Phan LK, van Thiel de Vries JSM, Stive MJF (2015) Coastal Mangrove Squeeze in the Mekong Delta. Journal of Coastal Research 300:233–243. https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-14-00049.1
Pinheiro J, Bates D, DebRoy S, et al (2020) Nlme: linear and nonlinear mixed effects models. In: R package version 3.1–152. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=nlme. Accessed 28 Jul 2020
R Core Team (2014) R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing
Radabaugh KR, Moyer RP, Chappel AR, Powell CE, Bociu I, Clark BC, Smoak JM (2017) Coastal blue carbon assessment of mangroves, salt marshes, and salt barrens in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA. Estuaries and Coasts 41:1496–1510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-017-0362-7
Ross MS, Meeder JF, Sah JP, Ruiz PL, Telesnicki GJ (2000) The southeast saline Everglades revisited: 50 years of coastal vegetation change. Journal of Vegetation Science 11:101–112
Saintilan N, Wilson NC, Rogers K, Rajkaran A, Krauss KW (2014) Mangrove expansion and salt marsh decline at mangrove poleward limits. Global Change Biology 20:147–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12341
Saintilan N, Khan NS, Ashe E, Kelleway JJ, Rogers K, Woodroffe CD, Horton BP (2020) Thresholds of mangrove survival under rapid sea level rise. Science 368:1118–1121. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba2656
Schuerch M, Spencer T, Temmerman S, Kirwan ML, Wolff C, Lincke D, McOwen CJ, Pickering MD, Reef R, Vafeidis AT, Hinkel J, Nicholls RJ, Brown S (2018) Future response of global coastal wetlands to sea-level rise. Nature 561:231–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0476-5
Servais S, Kominoski JS, Charles SP, Gaiser EE, Mazzei V, Troxler TG, Wilson BJ (2018) Saltwater intrusion and soil carbon loss: testing effects of salinity and phosphorus loading on microbial functions in experimental freshwater wetlands. Geoderma. 337:1291–1300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2018.11.013
Sikora L, Stott DE (1996) Soil organic carbon and nitrogen. Soil Science Society of America Special Publication 49:157–167
Smoak JM, Breithaupt JL, Smith TJ, Sanders CJ (2013) Sediment accretion and organic carbon burial relative to sea-level rise and storm events in two mangrove forests in Everglades National Park. CATENA 104:58–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2012.10.009
Sutter LA, Perry JE, Chambers RM (2014) Tidal freshwater Marsh Plant responses to low level salinity increases. Wetlands 34:167–175. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-013-0494-x
Sweet W, Kopp R, Weaver C, et al (2017) Global and regional sea level rise scenarios for the United States. 75
Twilley RR, Rovai AS, Riul P (2018) Coastal morphology explains global blue carbon distributions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 16:503–508. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1937
Vaughn DR, Bianchi TS, Shields MR, Kenney WF, Osborne TZ (2020) Increased organic carbon burial in northern Florida mangrove-salt marsh transition zones. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 34. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GB006334
Watanabe K, Seike K, Kajihara R, Montani S, Kuwae T (2019) Relative Sea-level change regulates organic carbon accumulation in coastal habitats. Global Change Biology 25:1063–1077. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14558
Wdowinski S, Bray R, Kirtman BP, Wu Z (2016) Increasing flooding hazard in coastal communities due to rising sea level: case study of Miami Beach, Florida. Ocean & Coastal Management 126:1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2016.03.002
Wilson BJ, Servais S, Charles SP, Davis SE, Gaiser EE, Kominoski JS, Richards JH, Troxler TG (2018) Declines in plant productivity drive carbon loss from brackish coastal wetland Mesocosms exposed to saltwater intrusion. Estuaries and Coasts. 41:2147–2158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-018-0438-z
Woodroffe CD, Rogers K, McKee KL et al (2016) Mangrove sedimentation and response to Relative Sea-level rise. Annual Review of Marine Science 8:243–266. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-122414-034025
Zuur A, Ieno EN, Walker N et al (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-87458-6
Acknowledgments
Elements of this investigation were based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1547798. This NSF Grant was awarded to Florida International University as part of the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Program. RWP acknowledges Catherine Lovelock (The University of Queensland) for providing globally relevant examples of ‘the coastal squeeze’. The authors thank the South Florida Water Management District for partial funding (contracts 11679, C-2409 and C-4244). Jesus Blanco, S. Castaneda, Peter Harlem, Alex Martinez-Held, Amy Renshaw, and Rosario Vidales are acknowledged for laboratory and field assistance. This is contribution number 947 of the Southeast Environmental Research Center in the Institute of Environment at Florida International University.
Authors’ Contributions (Optional: Please Review the Submission Guidelines from the Journal whether Statements Are Mandatory)
JFM: Data collection and analysis, manuscript preparation (40%), RWP: data analysis and manuscript preparation (40%), DO: statistical analysis and manuscript preparation (10%), MSR: data analysis and manuscript preparation (5%), JSK: data analysis and manuscript preparation (5%).
Funding (Information that Explains whether and by Whom the Research Was Supported)
Elements of this investigation were based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1547798. This NSF Grant was awarded to Florida International University as part of the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) Program. The authors thank the South Florida Water Management District for partial funding (contracts 11,679, C-2409 and C-4244).
Availability of Data and Material (Data Transparency)
None.
Code Availability (Software Application or Custom Code)
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests (Include Appropriate Disclosures)
None.
Ethics Approval (Include Appropriate Approvals or Waivers)
All field work was conducted in accordance with local legislation and/or the appropriate permissions and/or licenses from the responsible authority for obtaining the samples or carrying out the study in the SESE as specified in South Florida Water Management District contracts 11,679, C-2409 and C-4244.
Consent to Participate (Include Appropriate Statements)
None.
Consent for Publication (Include Appropriate Statements
None.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
the article collection Wetlands and Global Change
Supplementary Information
ESM 1
(DOCX 17 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Meeder, J.F., Parkinson, R.W., Ogurcak, D. et al. Changes in Sediment Organic Carbon Accumulation under Conditions of Historical Sea-Level Rise, Southeast Saline Everglades, Florida, USA. Wetlands 41, 41 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01440-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01440-7