Blue Carbon Accumulation Rates for the Pacific Coast of Canada: Examples from Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and the Clayoquot Biosphere Reserve
Abstract
While a complete understanding of the carbon cycle is a crucial component of well-designed climate policy, the carbon dynamics of vegetated, coastal ecosystems are poorly understood when compared with other ecosystems. `Blue carbon' refers to the carbon stored in coastal systems such as salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangroves; research indicates that these blue carbon ecosystems sequester carbon at high rates, potentially greater than terrestrial forests per unit area. However, specific data on their carbon accumulation rates, as well as spatial extents of the ecosystems themselves, is limited, especially in the temperate Northeast Pacific coast. This study incorporates several sites from Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and around Clayoquot Sound on the Pacific coast of Canada, where we measure carbon density and accumulation rates of soils and peats underlying estuarine salt marshes. Elemental analysis and loss-on-ignition quantified soil carbon which, alongside bulk density, 210Pb, and 14C radioisotope dating, produces carbon accumulation rate estimates. This study will provide the Government of Canada (Parks Canada) and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Canada, Mexico and the USA) with data regarding blue carbon stocks on the west coast of Canada. This information will serve as a baseline to inform scientists and managers about typical saltmarsh carbon accumulation rates in relatively undisturbed study sites. These data may inform future studies on the feasibility of northern, temperate salt marshes as carbon sinks, and can contribute to the growing interest in conserving coastal ecosystems for purposes of carbon sequestration.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.B11G..08C
- Keywords:
-
- 0414 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0428 Carbon cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0490 Trace gases;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0497 Wetlands;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES