Mangroves play an important role in regulating climate by sequestering carbon within soils and to a lesser extent in forest biomass, as well as exchanging carbon dioxide with and emitting methane to the atmosphere. The rate of soil accretion averages 5.8 mm yr -1 with most measurements between 0 to 2 mm yr -1 . The median is 3 mm yr -1 with one standard error of 1.0 mm yr -1 . The average carbon sequestration rate is 171 g C org m -2 yr -1 with a median of 103 g C org m -2 yr -1 . Assuming a global area of 137,760 km 2 , and using the median value, carbon sequestration in mangroves equates to 24 Tg C org yr -1 . Assuming a destruction rate of 1-2% yr -1 , we can estimate a loss of carbon equivalent to 5 to 11% to recent estimates of global deforestation. These losses also offset 23-49% of the carbon sink in the global ocean continental margins. The range of these losses underscores the global consequences of continuing mangrove losses to the global carbon cycle.
CITATION STYLE
Alongi, D. M. (2018). Climate regulation by capturing carbon in mangroves. In The Wetland Book: I: Structure and Function, Management, and Methods (pp. 1213–1219). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9659-3_236
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