BlueFlux-2: Multi-scale measurements of blue carbon ecosystems to support climate mitigation and adaptation in Southern Florida Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Blue carbon ecosystems are among the highest net-primary producers on the planet. Including mangroves, salt-marshes and seagrasses, blue carbon ecosystems sequester carbon in sediments, thus providing a long-term nature-based climate solution. From 2021 to 2023, the NASA Carbon Monitoring System supported the first BlueFlux field campaign, which included science partners from NASA GSFC, Eastern Carolina University and Yale University, and stakeholders from Winrock, the Everglades Leadership Training Initiative, the Everglades Foundation, and the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research Network. A multi-scale measurement approach was developed to quantify carbon dioxide removal and methane emissions across Southern Florida's Everglades and Big Cypress National Parks using flux chambers, eddy covariance from towers and from aircraft using the CARbon Airborne Flux Experiment (CARAFE), and upscaling with satellite remote sensing. BlueFlux has developed prototype carbon flux products to support mangrove restoration and conservation activities and carbon cycle science. We propose to expand our efforts to more directly support the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a multi-agency effort to restore freshwater hydrology to the Everglades. We will collect additional airborne flux measurements, prioritizing methane hotspots, land use and disturbance gradients (agriculture, fire and hurricanes), lateral processes, carbon isotopes, and different times of year. Deployments will be guided by, and extend beyond, the measurements acquired during BlueFlux-1. We will develop a semi-empirical AI-based models of carbon fluxes that can be integrated with hydrologic scenarios and data from the Restoration Task Force in partnership with Winrock and with the Everglades Foundation. Flux and biomass data will also be formatted following IPCC methodologies for use as emission factors in national and project-scale blue carbon accounting. Data products will be developed with Jupyter notebooks and provided to the ORNL DAAC in cloud-optimized formats so they can be easily ported to the US Greenhouse Gas Center. The proposed work is responsive to NASA CMS as well as to the newly released White House National Strategy for a Greenhouse Gas Monitoring, Measurement Information System (GHGMMIS).

date/time interval

  • January 2025 - January 2026