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Effect of restoration on saltmarsh carbon accumulation in Eastern England.

ABSTRACT: Wetland soils are globally important carbon stores, and natural wetlands provide a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) through ongoing carbon accumulation. Recognition of coastal wetlands as a significant contributor to carbon storage (blue carbon) has generated interest into the climate change mitigation benefits of restoring or recreating saltmarsh habitat. However, the length of time a re-created marsh will take to become functionally equivalent to a natural (reference) system, or indeed, whether reference conditions are attainable, is largely unknown. Here, we describe a combined field chronosequence and modelling study of saltmarsh carbon accumulation and provide empirically based predictions of changes in the carbon sequestration rate over time following saltmarsh restoration. Carbon accumulation was initially rapid (average 1.04 t C ha-1 yr-1 during the first 20 years), slowing to a steady rate of around 0.65 t C ha-1 yr-1 thereafter. The resulting increase in C stock gave an estimated total C accumulation of 74 t C ha-1 in the century following restoration. This is approximately the same as our observations of natural marsh C content (69 t C ha-1), suggesting that it takes approximately 100 years for restored saltmarsh to obtain the same carbon stock as natural sites.

SUBMITTER: Burden A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6371915 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Effect of restoration on saltmarsh carbon accumulation in Eastern England.

Burden A A Garbutt A A Evans C D CD

Biology letters 20190101 1

Wetland soils are globally important carbon stores, and natural wetlands provide a sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) through ongoing carbon accumulation. Recognition of coastal wetlands as a significant contributor to carbon storage (blue carbon) has generated interest into the climate change mitigation benefits of restoring or recreating saltmarsh habitat. However, the length of time a re-created marsh will take to become functionally equivalent to a natural (reference) syste ...[more]

PMID: 30907701

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Project description:Restored habitats, such as saltmarsh created through managed realignment, sometimes fail to meet targets for biological equivalence with natural reference sites. Understanding why this happens is important in order to improve restoration outcomes.Elevation in the tidal frame and sediment redox potential are major controls on the distribution of saltmarsh plants. We use niche models to characterize 10 species' responses to these, and test whether differences in species occurrence between restored and natural saltmarshes in the UK result from failure to recreate adequate environmental conditions.Six species occurred less frequently in recently restored marshes than natural marshes. Failure of restored marshes to achieve the elevation and redox conditions of natural marshes partially explained the underrepresentation of five of these species, but did not explain patterns of occurrence on older (>50 years) restored marshes.For all species, an effect of marsh age remained after controlling for differences in environmental conditions. This could be due to differences in successional mechanism between restored and natural marshes. In recently restored marshes, high-marsh species occurred lower in the tidal frame and low-marsh species occurred higher in the tidal frame than in natural marshes. This supports the hypothesis that competition is initially weaker in restored marshes, because of the availability of bare sediment across the whole tidal frame. Species that establish outside their normal realized niche, such as Atriplex portulacoides, may inhibit subsequent colonization of other species that occurred less frequently than expected on older restored marshes. Synthesis and applications. Niche models can be used to test whether abiotic differences between restored sites and their natural counterparts are responsible for discrepancies in species occurrence. In saltmarshes, simply replicating environmental conditions will not result in equivalent species occurrence.

Project description:BackgroundForest landscape restoration (FLR) has been adopted by governments and practitioners across the globe to mitigate and adapt to climate change and restore ecological functions across degraded landscapes. However, the extent to which these activities capture CO2 with associated climate mitigation impacts are poorly known, especially in geographies where data on biomass growth of restored forests are limited or do not exist. To fill this gap, we developed biomass accumulation rates for a set of FLR activities (natural regeneration, planted forests and woodlots, agroforestry, and mangrove restoration) across the globe and global CO2 removal rates with corresponding confidence intervals, grouped by FLR activity and region/climate.ResultsPlanted forests and woodlots were found to have the highest CO2 removal rates, ranging from 4.5 to 40.7 t CO2 ha-1 year-1 during the first 20 years of growth. Mangrove tree restoration was the second most efficient FLR at removing CO2, with growth rates up to 23.1 t CO2 ha-1 year-1 the first 20 years post restoration. Natural regeneration removal rates were 9.1-18.8 t CO2 ha-1 year-1 during the first 20 years of forest regeneration, followed by agroforestry, the FLR category with the lowest and regionally broad removal rates (10.8-15.6 t CO2 ha-1 year-1). Biomass growth data was most abundant and widely distributed across the world for planted forests and natural regeneration, representing 45% and 32% of all the data points assessed, respectively. Agroforestry studies, were only found in Africa, Asia, and the Latin America and Caribbean regions.ConclusionThis study represents the most comprehensive review of published literature on tree growth and CO2 removals to date, which we operationalized by constructing removal rates for specific FLR activities across the globe. These rates can easily be applied by practitioners and decision-makers seeking to better understand the positive climate mitigation impacts of existing or planned FLR actions, or by countries making restoration pledges under the Bonn Challenge Commitments or fulfilling Nationally Determined Contributions to the UNFCCC, thereby helping boost FLR efforts world-wide.

Dataset Information

Effect of restoration on saltmarsh carbon accumulation in Eastern England.

Publications

Effect of restoration on saltmarsh carbon accumulation in Eastern England.

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