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Carbon Storage Potential Of Mangroves–Are we Missing the Boat?


Affiliations
1 CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Post Box No. 436, Lucknow 226 001, India
2 Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parengipettai 608 502,, India
3 Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat 785 010, India
4 Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Brookshabad Campus, Port Blair 744 112, India
 

Increasing soil carbon stocks and protecting carbon-rich soils are crucial for achieving the Paris climate targets. Mangrove forests are the potential carbon sinks for mitigating the growing greenhouse gas emissions due to their highest carbon storage capacity per unit area compared to terrestrial forests. Furthermore, restricted global distribution of mangroves testifies their role in climate change mitigation as most effective at the national level rather than on a global scale. Nevertheless, lack of reliable estimates, insufficient data, discrepancy in the available data, increasing degradation rates and failure of conservation endeavours signify that we are missing the carbon storage potential of mangrove soil. So, here we emphasize the imperative need of country-wise site-specific precise estimates and an understanding of the spatial distribution of mangrove soil carbon stocks to recognize the actual climate mitigation potential of the mangroves as well as strengthen the conservation measures for the sustainability of mangroves.
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  • Carbon Storage Potential Of Mangroves–Are we Missing the Boat?

Abstract Views: 247  |  PDF Views: 80

Authors

P. Ragavan
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Post Box No. 436, Lucknow 226 001, India
K. Sivakumar
Centre for Advanced Studies in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Parengipettai 608 502,, India
R. S. C. Jayaraj
Rain Forest Research Institute, Jorhat 785 010, India
P. M. Mohan
Department of Ocean Studies and Marine Biology, Pondicherry University, Brookshabad Campus, Port Blair 744 112, India
T. S. Rana
CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, Post Box No. 436, Lucknow 226 001, India

Abstract


Increasing soil carbon stocks and protecting carbon-rich soils are crucial for achieving the Paris climate targets. Mangrove forests are the potential carbon sinks for mitigating the growing greenhouse gas emissions due to their highest carbon storage capacity per unit area compared to terrestrial forests. Furthermore, restricted global distribution of mangroves testifies their role in climate change mitigation as most effective at the national level rather than on a global scale. Nevertheless, lack of reliable estimates, insufficient data, discrepancy in the available data, increasing degradation rates and failure of conservation endeavours signify that we are missing the carbon storage potential of mangrove soil. So, here we emphasize the imperative need of country-wise site-specific precise estimates and an understanding of the spatial distribution of mangrove soil carbon stocks to recognize the actual climate mitigation potential of the mangroves as well as strengthen the conservation measures for the sustainability of mangroves.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv116%2Fi6%2F889-891