A global assessment of mangrove soil organic carbon sources and implications for blue carbon credit

Jingfan Zhang, Shuchai Gan, Pingjian Yang, Jinge Zhou, Xingyun Huang, Han Chen, Hua He, Neil Saintilan, Christian J. Sanders, Faming Wang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)
39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Mangroves can retain both autochthonous and allochthonous marine and/or terrestrial organic carbon (OC) in sediments. Accurate quantification of these OC sources is essential for the proper allocation of blue C credits. Here, we conduct a global-scale analysis of sediments autochthonous and allochthonous OC contributions in estuarine and marine mangroves using stable isotopes. Globally, mangrove-derived autochthonous OC was the main contributor to estuarine and marine mangrove top-meter soil organic carbon (SOC) (49% and 62%, respectively). Less marine allochthonous OC (21%) was deposited than terrestrial allochthonous OC (30%) in estuarine mangrove sediments. Estuarine mangroves accumulated more SOC in sediments than marine mangroves (282 ± 8.1 Mg C ha−1 and 250 ± 5.0 Mg C ha−1, respectively), primarily due to the additional terrestrial OC inputs. Globally, marine mangroves held 67% of the total mangrove SOC, reaching 3025 ± 345 Tg C, while 1502 ± 154 Tg C was stored in estuarine mangrove sediments. The findings emphasize the substantial influence of coastal environmental settings on OC contributions, underlining the necessity of accurate OC source quantification for the effective allocation of blue carbon credits.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8994
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalNature Communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Oct 2024

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Copyright the Author(s) 2024. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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