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Inorganic and Black Carbon Hotspots Constrain Blue Carbon Mitigation Services Across Tropical Seagrass and Temperate Tidal Marshes

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Abstract

Total organic carbon (TOC) sediment stocks as a CO2 mitigation service require exclusion of allochthonous black (BC) and particulate inorganic carbon corrected for water–atmospheric equilibrium (PICeq). For the first time, we address this bias for a temperate salt marsh and a coastal tropical seagrass in BC hotspots that represent two different blue carbon ecosystems of Malaysia and Australia. Seagrass TOC stocks were similar to the salt marshes with soil depths < 1 m (59.3 ± 11.3 and 74.9 ± 18.9 MgC ha− 1, CI 95 % respectively). Both ecosystems showed larger BC constraints than did their pristine counterparts. However, the seagrass meadows’ mitigation services were largely constrained by both higher BC/TOC and PICeq/TOC fractions (38.0 % ± 6.6 and 43.4 % ± 5.9 %, CI 95 %) and salt marshes around a third (22 % ± 10.2 and 6.0 % ± 3.1 % CI 95 %). The results provide useful data from underrepresented regions, and, reiterates the need to consider both BC and PIC for more reliable blue carbon mitigation assessments to ensure that greenhouse gas emitters do not exceed the ecosystems’ capacity.

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Data Availability

https://doi.org/10.25959/J4PJ-AD26.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of Jeff D Ross of the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania for facilitating the authors’ (JBG) position of Adjunct Researcher, and the support of the Centre of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Funding

This study was partly funded by Living Wetlands (Tasmania, Australia)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, 7004, Australia

    John Barry Gallagher

  2. Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Gelugor, Penang, 11800, Malaysia

    John Barry Gallagher

  3. School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, Australia

    Vishnu Prahalad & John Aalders

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Contributions

JBG: Conceptualization Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Resources. VP: Visualisation, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Funding acquisition. JA: Investigation, Resources, Writing - review. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to John Barry Gallagher.

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Gallagher, J.B., Prahalad, V. & Aalders, J. Inorganic and Black Carbon Hotspots Constrain Blue Carbon Mitigation Services Across Tropical Seagrass and Temperate Tidal Marshes. Wetlands 41, 65 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01460-3

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