Wetland carbon storage controlled by millennial-scale variation in relative sea-level rise

Kerrylee Rogers (), Jeffrey J. Kelleway, Neil Saintilan, J. Patrick Megonigal, Janine B. Adams, James R. Holmquist, Meng Lu, Lisa Schile-Beers, Atun Zawadzki, Debashish Mazumder and Colin D. Woodroffe
Additional contact information
Kerrylee Rogers: University of Wollongong
Jeffrey J. Kelleway: Macquarie University
Neil Saintilan: Macquarie University
J. Patrick Megonigal: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Janine B. Adams: Nelson Mandela University
James R. Holmquist: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Meng Lu: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Lisa Schile-Beers: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Atun Zawadzki: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Debashish Mazumder: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Colin D. Woodroffe: University of Wollongong

Nature, 2019, vol. 567, issue 7746, 91-95

Abstract: Abstract Coastal wetlands (mangrove, tidal marsh and seagrass) sustain the highest rates of carbon sequestration per unit area of all natural systems1,2, primarily because of their comparatively high productivity and preservation of organic carbon within sedimentary substrates3. Climate change and associated relative sea-level rise (RSLR) have been proposed to increase the rate of organic-carbon burial in coastal wetlands in the first half of the twenty-first century4, but these carbon–climate feedback effects have been modelled to diminish over time as wetlands are increasingly submerged and carbon stores become compromised by erosion4,5. Here we show that tidal marshes on coastlines that experienced rapid RSLR over the past few millennia (in the late Holocene, from about 4,200 years ago to the present) have on average 1.7 to 3.7 times higher soil carbon concentrations within 20 centimetres of the surface than those subject to a long period of sea-level stability. This disparity increases with depth, with soil carbon concentrations reduced by a factor of 4.9 to 9.1 at depths of 50 to 100 centimetres. We analyse the response of a wetland exposed to recent rapid RSLR following subsidence associated with pillar collapse in an underlying mine and demonstrate that the gain in carbon accumulation and elevation is proportional to the accommodation space (that is, the space available for mineral and organic material accumulation) created by RSLR. Our results suggest that coastal wetlands characteristic of tectonically stable coastlines have lower carbon storage owing to a lack of accommodation space and that carbon sequestration increases according to the vertical and lateral accommodation space6 created by RSLR. Such wetlands will provide long-term mitigating feedback effects that are relevant to global climate–carbon modelling.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-0951-7

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