Linking carbon and water dynamics in the pursuit of predicting peat collapse in coastal blue carbon wetlands Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Mangroves represent only 3% of the global forest cover, but the current degradation of pantropical mangrove forests is responsible for approximately 10% of the total carbon emissions from deforestation worldwide (Donato et al, 2011). Beyond being one of the most carbon dense ecosystems due to their high carbon sequestration rates (Donato et al, 2011; Pendleton et al, 2012), mangrove forests and other blue carbon wetlands (e.g., coastal sawgrass marsh) are economically and biologically important from local to global scales (Alongi et al, 2002). The large carbon stocks along with the many ecosystem services they provide, and threats from rising seas, saltwater intrusion, degradation and urban expansion, make mangrove environments globally important ecosystems. Blue carbon ecosystems store and sequester most of their carbon stocks in peat soils (Donato et al, 2011; Stringer et al, 2015) as long as they can maintain a balance between sediment accretion and sea-level rise (McKee, 2011). Sea-level rise and seawater intrusion pose high-risks of change to mangrove forests and coastal marshes, which can result in extraordinary changes to inundation and salinity that impact both above and below ground carbon cycling (Weston et al, 2006; Bouillon et al, 2008). Plant productivity, community structure, soil stability, microbial activity, and root dynamics can all be affected by these environmental changes. As a result, rapid changes in inundation or salinity brought upon by climate change, accelerated sea-level rise, storm surges, or increased water flow through restoration efforts will collectively have an impact on regional and global carbon cycling. The main goal of this project will consist of developing a new analytical framework from the fusion of multiple readily available ground, airborne, and spaceborne remote sensing datasets to quantify and predict rapid changes or collapse of the blue carbon landscapes. These types of data are now available or planned over the Florida Everglades as part of other NASA and other institutionally funded research. Spectral reflectance and fluorescence measurements can reveal when vegetation is enduring biophysical stress. Multi-scale lidar and radar measurements provide information regarding the horizontal and vertical physical structure. Combining these datasets will enable us to estimate forest and ecosystem changes, identify areas vulnerable to collapse, and model changes to regional carbon and water cycling to inform current restoration and research efforts in the Everglades.

date/time interval

  • November 2019 - May 2022