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Global controls on carbon storage in mangrove soils

Nature Climate Change volume 8, pages 534–538 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Global-scale variation in mangrove ecosystem properties has been explained using a conceptual framework linking geomorphological processes to distinct coastal environmental settings (CES) for nearly 50 years. However, these assumptions have not been empirically tested at the global scale. Here, we show that CES account for global variability in mangrove soil C:N:P stoichiometry and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. Using this ecogeomorphology framework, we developed a global model that captures variation in mangrove SOC stocks compatible with distinct CES. We show that mangrove SOC stocks have been underestimated by up to 50% (a difference of roughly 200 Mg ha−1) in carbonate settings and overestimated by up to 86% (around 400 Mg ha−1) in deltaic coastlines. Moreover, we provide information for 57 nations that currently lack SOC data, enabling these and other countries to develop or evaluate their blue carbon inventories.

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Fig. 1: Mangrove SOC, total nitrogen and total phosphorus, and C:N, N:P and C:P ratios in distinct CES in the neotropics.
Fig. 2: The effects of river and tidal power, temperature, precipitation, and PET lead to the formation of distinct CES and explain mangrove soil properties.
Fig. 3: Predicted global mangrove SOC stocks.
Fig. 4: Mean SOC stocks in different CES.
Fig. 5: Inter-study comparison of global mangrove SOC density estimates.

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Acknowledgements

The Brazilian foundations CAPES and CNPq, Louisiana Sea Grant College and NSF Coastal SEES programme (EAR-1427389) funded this work. The CAPES/CNPq Science without Borders and Post-doctoral Senior programmes provided international fellowships for A.S.R. (BEX1930/13-3), P.R.P. (18379/12-5) and A.L.F (209666/13-7). We are thankful to the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research programme (permit EVER-2013-SCI-0058), Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (especially K. Cunniff) and J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge (permit FWS 14042) for facilitating the collection of samples. We also thank S. L. Jardine for kindly providing a high-resolution mangrove soil carbon density grid to serve as a reference in our modelling analyses. We are extremely indebted to T. Blanchard (Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, LSU) and P. Leandro (CATIE) for support with laboratory analyses, as well as to W. Weis and R. Menghini for assistance during fieldwork and A. Christensen and A. McCall for assistance with manipulation of the raster files.

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Author notes

  1. Edward Castañeda-Moya

    Present address: Southeast Environmental Research Center, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    André S. Rovai, Robert R. Twilley & Edward Castañeda-Moya

  2. Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    André S. Rovai, Paulo A. Horta & Paulo R. Pagliosa

  3. Departamento de Engenharia e Meio Ambiente, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Rio Tinto, Brazil

    Pablo Riul

  4. Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación de Enseñanza, Turrialba, Costa Rica

    Miguel Cifuentes-Jara & Marilyn Manrow-Villalobos

  5. Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    Paulo A. Horta

  6. Núcleo de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    José C. Simonassi

  7. Departamento de Geociências, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    Alessandra L. Fonseca & Paulo R. Pagliosa

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Contributions

A.S.R. conceived the study, performed the statistical analyses and wrote the manuscript draft. P.R. and A.S.R. performed the modelling analyses. R.R.T., P.R.P., E.C.-M. and P.R. contributed to development of the work in general and helped to write the final version of the paper. M.C.-J. collected and analysed soil samples from El Salvador, Panama and some sites in Costa Rica. P.R.P., E.C.-M., M.M.-V., P.A.H., J.C.S. and A.L.F. contributed to field sampling and laboratory analyses.

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Correspondence to André S. Rovai.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Note 1, Supplementary Figures 1–6, Supplementary Tables 2–5, Supplementary References

Supplementary Table 1

Contains the global mangrove soil organic carbon density dataset used in the modelling analysis. File format: Excel, file size: 35KB

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Rovai, A.S., Twilley, R.R., Castañeda-Moya, E. et al. Global controls on carbon storage in mangrove soils. Nature Clim Change 8, 534–538 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0162-5

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