Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments

N. R. Geraldi; Alejandra Ortega; Oscar Serrano; Peter I. Macreadie; Catherine E. Lovelock; Dorte Krause-Jensen; Hilary Kennedy; Paul Lavery; Michael L. Pace; Joeri Kaal; Carlos M. Duarte

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00263

Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments

N. R. Geraldi, Alejandra Ortega, Oscar Serrano, Peter I. Macreadie, Catherine E. Lovelock, Dorte Krause-Jensen, Hilary Kennedy, Paul Lavery, Michael L. Pace, Joeri Kaal, Carlos M. Duarte

Arctic Research Centre - Arctic Research Center, ECOS Water

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

83 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Blue carbon is the organic carbon in oceanic and coastal ecosystems that is captured on centennial to millennial timescales. Maintaining and increasing blue carbon is an integral component of strategies to mitigate global warming. Marine vegetated ecosystems (especially seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and tidal marshes) are blue carbon hotspots and their degradation and loss worldwide have reduced organic carbon stocks and increased CO ₂ emissions. Carbon markets, and conservation and restoration schemes aimed at enhancing blue carbon sequestration and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, will be aided by knowing the provenance and fate of blue carbon. We review and critique current methods and the potential of nascent methods to track the provenance and fate of organic carbon, including: bulk isotopes, compound-specific isotopes, biomarkers, molecular properties, and environmental DNA (eDNA). We find that most studies to date have used bulk isotopes to determine provenance, but this approach often cannot distinguish the contribution of different primary producers to organic carbon in depositional marine environments. Based on our assessment, we recommend application of multiple complementary methods. In particular, the use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of lipids along with eDNA have a great potential to identify the source and quantify the contribution of different primary producers to sedimentary organic carbon in marine ecosystems. Despite the promising potential of these new techniques, further research is needed to validate them. This critical overview can inform future research to help underpin methodologies for the implementation of blue carbon focused climate change mitigation schemes.

Original language	English
Article number	263
Journal	Frontiers in Marine Science
Volume	6
Issue	May
ISSN	2296-7745
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00263
Publication status	Published - May 2019

Keywords

Blue carbon
Carbon accounting
Environmental DNA
Isotopes
Organic carbon
Sequestration

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10.3389/fmars.2019.00263Licence: CC BY

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Geraldi, N. R., Ortega, A., Serrano, O., Macreadie, P. I., Lovelock, C. E., Krause-Jensen, D., Kennedy, H., Lavery, P., Pace, M. L., Kaal, J., & Duarte, C. M. (2019). Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6(May), Article 263. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00263

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title = "Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments",

abstract = "Blue carbon is the organic carbon in oceanic and coastal ecosystems that is captured on centennial to millennial timescales. Maintaining and increasing blue carbon is an integral component of strategies to mitigate global warming. Marine vegetated ecosystems (especially seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and tidal marshes) are blue carbon hotspots and their degradation and loss worldwide have reduced organic carbon stocks and increased CO 2 emissions. Carbon markets, and conservation and restoration schemes aimed at enhancing blue carbon sequestration and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, will be aided by knowing the provenance and fate of blue carbon. We review and critique current methods and the potential of nascent methods to track the provenance and fate of organic carbon, including: bulk isotopes, compound-specific isotopes, biomarkers, molecular properties, and environmental DNA (eDNA). We find that most studies to date have used bulk isotopes to determine provenance, but this approach often cannot distinguish the contribution of different primary producers to organic carbon in depositional marine environments. Based on our assessment, we recommend application of multiple complementary methods. In particular, the use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of lipids along with eDNA have a great potential to identify the source and quantify the contribution of different primary producers to sedimentary organic carbon in marine ecosystems. Despite the promising potential of these new techniques, further research is needed to validate them. This critical overview can inform future research to help underpin methodologies for the implementation of blue carbon focused climate change mitigation schemes.",

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Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments. / Geraldi, N. R.; Ortega, Alejandra; Serrano, Oscar et al.
In: Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol. 6, No. May, 263, 05.2019.

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fingerprinting blue carbon

T2 - Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments

AU - Geraldi, N. R.

AU - Ortega, Alejandra

AU - Serrano, Oscar

AU - Macreadie, Peter I.

AU - Lovelock, Catherine E.

AU - Krause-Jensen, Dorte

AU - Kennedy, Hilary

AU - Lavery, Paul

AU - Pace, Michael L.

AU - Kaal, Joeri

AU - Duarte, Carlos M.

PY - 2019/5

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N2 - Blue carbon is the organic carbon in oceanic and coastal ecosystems that is captured on centennial to millennial timescales. Maintaining and increasing blue carbon is an integral component of strategies to mitigate global warming. Marine vegetated ecosystems (especially seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and tidal marshes) are blue carbon hotspots and their degradation and loss worldwide have reduced organic carbon stocks and increased CO 2 emissions. Carbon markets, and conservation and restoration schemes aimed at enhancing blue carbon sequestration and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, will be aided by knowing the provenance and fate of blue carbon. We review and critique current methods and the potential of nascent methods to track the provenance and fate of organic carbon, including: bulk isotopes, compound-specific isotopes, biomarkers, molecular properties, and environmental DNA (eDNA). We find that most studies to date have used bulk isotopes to determine provenance, but this approach often cannot distinguish the contribution of different primary producers to organic carbon in depositional marine environments. Based on our assessment, we recommend application of multiple complementary methods. In particular, the use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of lipids along with eDNA have a great potential to identify the source and quantify the contribution of different primary producers to sedimentary organic carbon in marine ecosystems. Despite the promising potential of these new techniques, further research is needed to validate them. This critical overview can inform future research to help underpin methodologies for the implementation of blue carbon focused climate change mitigation schemes.

AB - Blue carbon is the organic carbon in oceanic and coastal ecosystems that is captured on centennial to millennial timescales. Maintaining and increasing blue carbon is an integral component of strategies to mitigate global warming. Marine vegetated ecosystems (especially seagrass meadows, mangrove forests, and tidal marshes) are blue carbon hotspots and their degradation and loss worldwide have reduced organic carbon stocks and increased CO 2 emissions. Carbon markets, and conservation and restoration schemes aimed at enhancing blue carbon sequestration and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, will be aided by knowing the provenance and fate of blue carbon. We review and critique current methods and the potential of nascent methods to track the provenance and fate of organic carbon, including: bulk isotopes, compound-specific isotopes, biomarkers, molecular properties, and environmental DNA (eDNA). We find that most studies to date have used bulk isotopes to determine provenance, but this approach often cannot distinguish the contribution of different primary producers to organic carbon in depositional marine environments. Based on our assessment, we recommend application of multiple complementary methods. In particular, the use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of lipids along with eDNA have a great potential to identify the source and quantify the contribution of different primary producers to sedimentary organic carbon in marine ecosystems. Despite the promising potential of these new techniques, further research is needed to validate them. This critical overview can inform future research to help underpin methodologies for the implementation of blue carbon focused climate change mitigation schemes.

KW - Blue carbon

KW - Carbon accounting

KW - Environmental DNA

KW - Isotopes

KW - Organic carbon

KW - Sequestration

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U2 - 10.3389/fmars.2019.00263

DO - 10.3389/fmars.2019.00263

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2296-7745

VL - 6

JO - Frontiers in Marine Science

JF - Frontiers in Marine Science

IS - May

M1 - 263

ER -

Fingerprinting blue carbon: Rationale and Tools to Determine the Source of Organic Carbon in Marine Depositional Environments

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Keywords

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