Mangroves provide blue carbon ecological value at a low freshwater cost

Ken Krauss; Catherine E. Lovelock; Luzhen Chen; Uta Berger; Marilyn C. Ball; Ruth Reef; Ronny Peters; Hannah Bowen; Alejandra G. Vovides; Eric Ward; Marie-Christin Wimmler; Joel A. Carr; Pete Bunting; Jamie A. Duberstein

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-21514-8

Mangroves provide blue carbon ecological value at a low freshwater cost

Scientific Reports

By: Ken Krauss, Catherine E. Lovelock, Luzhen Chen, Uta Berger, Marilyn C. Ball, Ruth Reef, Ronny Peters, Hannah Bowen, Alejandra G. Vovides, Eric Ward, Marie-Christin Wimmler, Joel A. Carr, Pete Bunting, and Jamie A. Duberstein

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21514-8

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Abstract

“Blue carbon” wetland vegetation has a limited freshwater requirement. One type, mangroves, utilizes less freshwater during transpiration than adjacent terrestrial ecoregions, equating to only 43% (average) to 57% (potential) of evapotranspiration ( $E T$ ). Here, we demonstrate that comparative consumptive water use by mangrove vegetation is as much as 2905 kL H₂O ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ less than adjacent ecoregions with $E_{c}$ -to- $E T$ ratios of 47–70%. Lower porewater salinity would, however, increase mangrove $E_{c}$ -to- $E T$ ratios by affecting leaf-, tree-, and stand-level eco-physiological controls on transpiration. Restricted water use is also additive to other ecosystem services provided by mangroves, such as high carbon sequestration, coastal protection and support of biodiversity within estuarine and marine environments. Low freshwater demand enables mangroves to sustain ecological values of connected estuarine ecosystems with future reductions in freshwater while not competing with the freshwater needs of humans. Conservative water use may also be a characteristic of other emergent blue carbon wetlands.

Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Mangroves provide blue carbon ecological value at a low freshwater cost
Series title	Scientific Reports
DOI	10.1038/s41598-022-21514-8
Volume	12
Year Published	2022
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Nature
Contributing office(s)	Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center
Description	17636, 12 p.
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page