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.
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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.
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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%).
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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).
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01440-7