Soil carbon in the world’s tidal marshes
Tidal marshes are threatened coastal ecosystems known for their capacity to store large amounts of carbon in their water-logged soils. Accurate quantification and mapping of global tidal marshes soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks is of considerable value to conservation efforts. Here, we used training data from 3710 unique locations, landscape-level environmental drivers and a global tidal marsh extent map to produce a global, spatially explicit map of SOC storage in tidal marshes at 30 m resolution. Here we show the total global SOC stock to 1 m to be 1.44 Pg C, with a third of this value stored in the United States of America. On average, SOC in tidal marshes' 0-30 and 30-100 cm soil layers are estimated at 83.1 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup> (average predicted error 44.8 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup>) and 185.3 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup> (average predicted error 105.7 Mg C ha<sup>-1</sup>), respectively.
Authors
- James R. Holmquist (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2546-6766)
- Grace M. Cott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1233-3788)
- Tania L. Maxwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8413-9186)
- Ana Carolina Ruíz-Fernández (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2515-1249)
- María Fernanda Adame (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9620-9252)
- André Rovai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4117-2055)
- Lisamarie Windham‐Myers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0281-9581)
- Lindsey S. Smart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1366-6528)
- Margareth Copertino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5771-829X)
- Mark Spalding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-4533)
- Daniel A. Friess (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3087-5233)
- Craig Smeaton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4535-2555)
- Thomas A. Worthington (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8138-9075)
- Alejandro Navarro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5687-0385)
- Marvin Ludwig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3010-018X)
- Nicholas Murray (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4008-3053)
- William E. N. Austin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6544-3468)
- Kerrylee Rogers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1350-4737)
- Óscar Serrano (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5973-0046)
- Catherine E. Lovelock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2219-6855)
- Janine B. Adams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7204-123X)
- Lukas Weilguny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6459-0431)
- Micheli Duarte de Paula Costa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4849-2628)
- Jacqueline L. Raw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5270-032X)
- Monica M. Moritsch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3890-1264)
- Cai Ladd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5437-6474)
- Marijn Van de Broek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6993-7825)
- Emily Landis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3710-5810)
Institutions
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Tulane University (US)
- Griffith University (AU)
- Louisiana State University (US)
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (BR)
- The Nature Conservancy (US)
- European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (AT)
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Deakin University (AU)
- Bangor University (GB)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- University of Wollongong (AU)
- University of Münster (DE)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Committee on Climate Change (GB)
- North Central State College (US)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Swansea University (GB)
- United States Army (US)
- The Nature Conservancy (CO)
- Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (ES)
- Research ICT Africa (ZA)
- Conservation Leadership Programme (GB)
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (US)
- James Cook University (AU)
- U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (US)
- Scottish Association For Marine Science (GB)
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
- Nelson Mandela University (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-11-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54572-9
- Citations
- 40
- Primary Topic
- Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 18.36
Funders
- Dell EMC
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Science and Technology Facilities Council