Mangroves could store less carbon – and even begin releasing it – as sea levels rise, according to new research.
Mangroves are made up of salt-tolerant plants that grow in coastal areas. They cover less than 1% of Earth’s surface but store about 15% of all ocean carbon, most of it in their soils. This ability to store carbon makes them important in efforts to limit climate change.
Previous research has suggested rising seas could increase carbon storage in mangroves, but the new study challenges this.
The research team, which includes partners in the UK, Colombia and the United States, developed a new model to assess how sea-level rise will affect carbon storage across entire mangrove forests. The findings show that, while carbon storage might increase in localised spots as sea levels rise, storage at the scale of whole forests is likely to decline over the next 100 years.
The study’s lead author is
Dr Arya Iwantoro , Senior Research Consultant in Coastal Modelling at the University of Plymouth and a member of the
CMAR – Coastal Marine Applied Research consultancy group and the
Centre for Coastal and Ocean Processes and Engineering (C-COPE) .
His current research is integral to assessing the long-term stability of coastal and estuarine environments, while his work towards this study took place during a postdoctoral fellowship – where he evaluated the impacts of human pressures and climate change in mangrove ecosystems – at the University of Exeter.
Dr Arya Iwantoro
