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Gore, Catrina 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3949-6835, Gehrels, W. Roland, Smeaton, Craig, Andrews, Luke, McMahon, Lucy, Hibbert, Fiona, Austin, William E. N., Nolte, Stefanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8570-241X and Garrett, Ed
(2024)
Saltmarsh blue carbon accumulation rates and their relationship with sea-level rise on a multi-decadal timescale in northern England.
Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 299.
ISSN 0272-7714
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Abstract
Saltmarshes are widely thought to sequester carbon at rates significantly exceeding those found in terrestrial environments. This ability arises from the in-situ production of plant biomass and the effective trapping and storage of both autochthonous and allochthonous organic carbon. The role saltmarshes play in climate change mitigation, through accumulating ‘blue’ carbon, depends on both the rate at which carbon accumulates within sediments and the rapidity with which carbon is remineralised. It has been hypothesised that carbon accumulation rates, in turn, depend on the local rate of relative sea-level rise, with faster sea-level rise providing more accommodation space for carbon storage. This relationship has been investigated over long (millennial) and short (decadal) timescales but without accounting for the impact of higher quantities of labile carbon in more recently deposited sediment. This study addresses these three key aspects in a saltmarsh sediment study from Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve (NNR), northern England, where there is a comparatively pristine marsh. We quantify rates of carbon accumulation by combining a Bayesian age-depth model based on 210Pb and 137Cs activities with centimetre-resolution organic carbon density measurements. We also use thermogravimetric analyses to determine the relative proportions of labile and recalcitrant organic matter and calculate the net recalcitrant organic matter accumulation rate. Results indicate that during the 20th century more carbon accumulated at the Lindisfarne NNR saltmarsh during decades with relatively high rates of sea-level rise. The post-depositional loss of labile carbon down the core results in a weaker though still significant relationship between recalcitrant organic matter accumulation and sea-level change. Thus, that increasing saltmarsh carbon accumulation is driven by higher rates of sea-level rise is demonstrated over recent multi-decadal timescales.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Funding Information: Fieldwork and elemental and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted as a part of the NERC funded (NE/R010846/1) Carbon Storage in Intertidal Environments (C-SIDE) project (https://www.c-side.org/). We thank Andrew Craggs and Natural England for their support for this research and for providing access to Lindisfarne NNR. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | cs sediment dating,pb sediment dating,chronology,labile,recalcitrant,thermogravimetric analysis,aquatic science,oceanography,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1100/1104 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Collaborative Centre for Sustainable Use of the Seas Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Mar 2024 18:29 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Mar 2024 18:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94468 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ecss.2024.108665 |
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