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Minerogenic salt marshes can function as important inorganic carbon stores

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift/Konferencebidrag i tidsskrift /Bidrag til avis › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › peer review

DOI

  • Peter Mueller, Universität Münster, University of Hamburg
    • ,
  • Lars Kutzbach, University of Hamburg
    • ,
  • Thomas J. Mozdzer, Bryn Mawr College
    • ,
  • Emil Jespersen
  • Donald C. Barber, Bryn Mawr College
    • ,
  • Franziska Eller

Stocks and fluxes of soil inorganic carbon have long been ignored in the context of coastal carbon sequestration, and their implications for the climate cooling effect of blue carbon ecosystems are complex. Here, we investigate the role of soil inorganic carbon in five salt marshes along the northern coast of the European Wadden Sea, one of the world's largest intertidal areas, harboring ~ 20% of European salt-marsh area. We demonstrate a substantial contribution of inorganic carbon (average: 29%; range: 7–57%) to the total soil carbon stock of the top 1 m. Notably, inorganic exceeded organic carbon stocks in one of the studied sites; a finding that we ascribe to site geomorphic features, such as proximity to marine calcium carbonate sources and hydrodynamic exposure. Contrary to our hypothesis that inorganic carbon stocks would decline along the successional gradient from tidal flat to high marsh, as carbonate deposits would progressively dissolve in increasingly organic-rich rooted sediments, our findings demonstrate the opposite pattern—an increase in inorganic carbon stocks along the successional gradient. This suggests that the dissolution of calcium carbonates in the root zone is counterbalanced by other processes, such as trapping of sedimentary carbonates by marsh vegetation and calcium carbonate precipitation in anaerobic subsoils. In the context of blue carbon, it will be critical to develop an improved understanding of these plant- and microbiota-mediated processes in calcium carbonate cycling.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftLimnology and Oceanography
Vol/bind68
Nummer4
Sider (fra-til)942-952
Antal sider11
ISSN0024-3590
DOI
StatusUdgivet - apr. 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
The authors thank Clarisse Gösele and Gro Kirk for their help with lab and field work, respectively. Peter Mueller was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) in the framework the Emmy Noether Program (502681570) and by DAAD (German academic exchange service) PRIME fellowship program funded through the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Thomas Mozdzer acknowledges funding by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (DEB-2051602). This study is a contribution to the Cluster of Excellence “CLICCS—Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” and to the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of Universität Hamburg. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Funding Information:
The authors thank Clarisse Gösele and Gro Kirk for their help with lab and field work, respectively. Peter Mueller was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation) in the framework the Emmy Noether Program (502681570) and by DAAD (German academic exchange service) PRIME fellowship program funded through the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Thomas Mozdzer acknowledges funding by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (DEB‐2051602). This study is a contribution to the Cluster of Excellence “CLICCS—Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” and to the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of Universität Hamburg. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

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