Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 11914, doi::10.1038/s41598-017-12138-4.
Description:
Coastal wetlands are sites of rapid carbon (C) sequestration and contain large soil C stocks. Thus,
there is increasing interest in those ecosystems as sites for anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission
offset projects (sometimes referred to as “Blue Carbon”), through preservation of existing C stocks
or creation of new wetlands to increase future sequestration. Here we show that in the globallywidespread
occurrence of diked, impounded, drained and tidally-restricted salt marshes, substantial
methane (CH4) and CO2 emission reductions can be achieved through restoration of disconnected saline
tidal flows. Modeled climatic forcing indicates that tidal restoration to reduce emissions has a much
greater impact per unit area than wetland creation or conservation to enhance sequestration. Given
that GHG emissions in tidally-restricted, degraded wetlands are caused by human activity, they are
anthropogenic emissions, and reducing them will have an effect on climate that is equivalent to reduced
emission of an equal quantity of fossil fuel GHG. Thus, as a landuse-based climate change intervention,
reducing CH4 emissions is an entirely distinct concept from biological C sequestration projects to
enhance C storage in forest or wetland biomass or soil, and will not suffer from the non-permanence risk
that stored C will be returned to the atmosphere.
Description:
Research supported by the USGS Coastal & Marine Geology Program, USGS Land Carbon Program, and NOAA
Science Collaborative grant #NA09NOS4190153.
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
