Mass Mangrove Death In Northern Australia Produced Surprising Methane Spike

[hatrack]

When swathes of mangrove forests died along a 1000 kilometre stretch of coastline in northern Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, there was widespread shock. But the impacts of the catastrophic climate-induced mangrove dieback didn’t end there. In a world first, researchers from Southern Cross University have found that the dead trees released significant amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane.

The results, published in a leading international journal New Phytologist, revealed that while living mangroves emit some methane, dead mangroves emit about eight times more. Methane emissions from mangrove tree-stems have never been quantified until now.

“The findings were a surprise,” said lead author and PhD candidate Luke Jeffrey. “Currently very little is known about the role of tree-stem methane emissions globally and quantifying these from mangrove tree-stems has never been attempted.

“Due to the unique nature of the dieback event, we were able to compare methane tree-stem emissions from living and dead mangrove forests. This allowed us to understand what happens when climatic-change stressors result in forest mortality. What was concerning was that the dead mangrove forest emitted about eight times more methane than the living forest.”

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https://desdemonadespair.net/2019/07/unexpected-consequences-from-catastrophic-mangrove-dieback-what-was-concerning-was-that-the-dead-mangrove-forest-emitted-about-eight-times-more-methane-than-the-living-forest.html