Impacts of Soil Organic Stability on Carbon Storage in Coastal Wetlands

Abstract:

Coastal wetlands store vast amounts of organic carbon, globally, and are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the effects of anthropogenic sea level rise. Recently, we used ramped pyrolysis/oxidation decomposition characteristics as proxies for soil organic carbon (SOC) stability to understand the fate of carbon storage in coastal wetlands (fresh, brackish, and salt marshes) comprising the Mississippi River deltaic plain, undergoing rapid rates of local sea level rise. At equivalent soil depths, we observed that fresh marsh SOC was more thermochemically stable than brackish and salt marsh SOC. The differences in stability imply stronger carbon sequestration potential of fresh marsh soil carbon, compared to that of salt and brackish marshes. Here, we expand upon these results of differential organic carbon stability/reactivity and model how projected changes in salinity due to sea-level rise and other environmental changes will impact carbon storage in this region with implications globally.