Widespread crab burrows enhance greenhouse gas emissions from coastal blue carbon ecosystems
Fiddler crabs, as coastal ecosystem engineers, play a crucial role in enhancing biodiversity and accelerating the flow of material and energy. Here we show how widespread crab burrows modify the carbon sequestration capacity of different habitats across a large climatic gradient. The process of crab burrowing results in the reallocation of sediment organic carbon and humus. Crab burrows can increase more greenhouse gases emissions compared to the sediment matrix (CO2: by 17–30%; CH4: by 49–141%). Straightforward calculations indicate that these increased emissions could offset 35–134% of sediment carbon burial in these two ecosystems. This research highlights the complex interactions between crab burrows, habitat type, and climate which reveal a potential lower carbon sink function of blue carbon ecosystems than previously expected without considering crab burrows. Bioturbation in wetlands can increase carbon dioxide and methane emissions, partially offsetting their sediment carbon burial capacity, according to a large-scale data set from sediment samples collected along the Chinese coastline and laboratory incubations.
Authors
- Feng Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9831-5411)
- Ruili Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5112-3201)
- Yu-Chen Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9109-5735)
- Yan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3197-9349)
- Yasong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0764-4629)
- He‐Bo Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9612-1461)
- Yan Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5256-9395)
- Leilei Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8126-6526)
- Faming Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7543-6779)
- Daniel M. Alongi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3637-8190)
- Meiqing Lu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9165-9828)
- Kai Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6353-4822)
- Isaac R. Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0524-842X)
- Alicia M. Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1113-6267)
- Pei Xin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3090-3409)
- Nengwang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5200-1035)
- Bochao Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5069-3824)
- Joseph Tamborski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2422-3252)
- Chunmiao Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5839-1305)
- Hailong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8968-3076)
- Yan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7833-0091)
- Guangxuan Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2651-8599)
- Y. Huang
Institutions
- Guangdong University of Technology (CN)
- University of South Carolina (US)
- Hohai University (CN)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Xiamen University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (CN)
- Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (CN)
- Reef Ecologic (AU)
- South China Botanical Garden (CN)
- Ocean University of China (CN)
- Old Dominion University (US)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Published
- 2024-08-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01621-2
- Citations
- 24
- Primary Topic
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 11.01
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province