1. The Benefits of Maintaining Mangrove Ecosystems:
The use of Mangroves as Carbon Sinks in terms of Climate Change
Mitigation
Kamariah Bankston, Dr. Douglas Aubrey PhD
Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University
Introduction
❏ Mangrove forest have become a global concern in recent
decades, and are gaining attention because of the
potential they have to alter the amount of carbon in the
atmosphere.
❏ They are responsible for sustaining productivity in the
tropical and subtropical coastal regions and do so by
sequestering large amounts of carbon below and above
ground.
❏Questions
-How fast are mangroves being destroyed by
deforestation?
-How much carbon is being released into the atmosphere
by the doubling effects of tree burning and the loss of
carbon sequestering power?
-How much carbon could we potentially remove from the
atmosphere by restoring mangrove forests?
Methods
1) LAI used to indicate aboveground biomass: correlates to
underground biomass
2) The understory layer included a shrub layer (0.5 to 1.5 m tall) and a
herb layer (<0.5 m tall). To estimate C storage we collected all plant
individuals including seedlings from three 5-m×5-m subquadrats in
each quadrat.we collected all litter from three 1-m×1-m subquadrats
is each quadrat. The biomass of trees was calculated using the
Biomass Expansion Factor (fBEF) method:
3) Based on the estimation of total C storage (Vegetation C and SOC)
in each city, we produced the spatial distribution map of carbon
storage (Zhang, J.-P., et al., 2012)
Results
Mangrove deforestation generates emission of 0.02 - 0.12 Pg carbon/
1) year, as much as around 10% of emissions globally despite accounting
for about 0.7% of tropical forest area..
2) Mangroves act as an effective carbon sink and sequester
approximately one hundred tons of carbon dioxide per
hectare.
3)Mangrove sediment acts a carbon reservoir due to its soft
and muddy texture that extends up to a depth of 3-4 m.
Acknowledgements
Georgia Southern University
Undergraduate Research Symposium 2015
Dr. Doug Aubrey PhD
Figure 1. Illustrates the movement of organic carbon and carbon dioxide
throughout the mangrove ecosystem.
Conclusions
1)In some areas of the world. mangrove restoration
projects have increased as the benefits of restoring them
become more widely known.
2)Immature mangrove plantations accumulate large
quantities of soil organic carbon, but not as much soil
organic carbon as the natural mangrove forests.
3)Deforestation of mangroves is a local and global concern.
The immense benefits provided by mangrove forest
ecosystems are not properly documented; there is a lack
of a direct, easily observed relationship between a
mangrove forest and the benefits it provided.
Literature Cited
Maiti, S. K. and C. Abhiroop (2013). "Effects of anthropogenic pollution on mangrove biodiversity: a review." Journal of
Environmental Protection 4(12): 1428-1434.
Zhang, J.-P., et al. (2012). "Estimating Change in Sedimentary Organic Carbon Content During Mangrove Restoration in Southern China
Using Carbon Isotopic Measurements." Pedosphere 22(1): 58-66.
Figure 2. Shows the current estimated amount of carbon dioxide per hectare of the
various wetland environments, including mangrove forests.