Exploring present and future carbon dynamics in connected mangrove forests and seagrass beds: How important is it?

• Applicant: Dr. Lucy Gillis, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems ; Biochemistry ; Soil Sciences
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 314115652

Recently carbon that has been retained within the coastal zone (blue carbon) has gained increasing interest by scientists and managers amongst other stakeholders. Ecosystems that retain carbon have great importance as a carbon sink and therefore may have implications for the global climate cycle. Tropical systems such as mangrove forests and seagrass beds, which are dominated by ecosystem engineers (organisms which physically modify environmental conditions thereby allowing for greater resource availability), are known to retain more carbon in their sediment than comparable terrestrial systems. Consequently these ecosystems may be especially important for both regional and global carbon cycling. However there is a dearth of knowledge on the driving forces of carbon donation and retention in mangrove forests and seagrass beds. At the landscape scale we want to establish the physical, biological and chemical drivers of spatial distribution of carbon sequestration, carbon supply and carbon dioxide (CO2) release from the sediment in the present and for the future. To achieve this we will monitor sites in four different global regions to gain an in-depth understanding of how carbon cycling changes across global latitudes. Firstly we will establish the spatial distribution of carbon rich particulate material within and between connected and isolated tropical coastal ecosystems, secondly, we will monitor CO2 release for different ecosystem configurations and relate this parameter to carbon accumulation. Thirdly, using incubations we hope to establish how a temperature gradient could affects CO2 release. Future understanding of CO2 release and carbon accumulation from mangrove and seagrass sediment is vital for understanding how the tropical coastal seascape may affect the global carbon cycle especially with climate induced temperature increases. This information can also be used as a critique of the carbon storage potential of tropical coastal vegetation. It is therefore anticipated that the data gained from this project could be expended in present and future scientific policy and ecosystems based management (EBM) in addition to enhancing our understanding of the underlying processes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Martin Zimmer