Desert mangroves are major source of carbon storage

[Judi Lynn]

Desert mangroves are major source of carbon storage
by Staff Writers
San Diego CA (SPX) Mar 29, 2016


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These are red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) in a small forest patch in Baja California Peninsula. Image courtesy Octavio Aburto / iLCP.
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Researchers found that short, stunted mangroves living along the coastal desert of Baja California store up to five times more carbon below ground than their lush, tropical counterparts. The new study led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego estimates that coastal desert mangroves, which only account for one percent of the land area, store nearly 30 percent of the region's belowground carbon.

"Mangroves represent a thin layer between ocean and land, and yet we are seeing an ecosystem that is storing a lot of carbon in a very small area," said Paula Ezcurra, lead author of the study and a former researcher at Scripps.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was the first to estimate carbon accumulated in the mangrove's sediment peat layer, and highlights the importance of better understanding the natural history conditions where mangroves live to more accurately estimate their global carbon storage capacity.

Mangroves are known to thrive in hot, salty, and muddy conditions along tropical coasts.

Scripps researchers collected sediment core samples from deep below the mangled roots at two desert lagoons?Bahia Magdalena and Balandra?and two lush, tropical lagoons?Marismas Nacionales and La Encrucijada? and calculated the carbon stored at the four locations.

The findings revealed a 2,000-year-old layer of non-decomposed roots, or peat, up to four meters (13 feet) under the desert mangroves. The peat acts like a sponge for stored atmospheric carbon, and provides a record of sea-level-rise history in the region.

More:
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Desert_mangroves_are_major_source_of_carbon_storage_999.html

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Desert Mangroves







Desert Mangroves[/center]
Desert Mangroves, Yay.

[monicaangela]

1. We need to protect and preserve these mangroves!

Great News Judi!

[Judi Lynn]

3. They do a lot of good, don't they? Thanks.

[monicaangela]

4. Yes they do, and we don't do nearly enough to protect them.

The United Nations Environment Programme is touting the first global assessment in a decade of the state of the world's mangrove forests and the prognosis isn't particularly good: The report found that, despite conservation efforts and slowing rates of clearance, mangroves are being cleared at three to four times the rate of other forests.Since 1980 about 20% of the mangrove forests have been cleared. Considering that mangroves are worth between $2000-9000 per hectare annually in ecosystem services (providing flood defense, spawning grounds for fish, carbon storage, etc) and direct revenue (fishing, etc), that's both an ecologic and economic tragedy.

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/worlds-mangroves-being-destroyed-four-times-faster-than-other-forests.html

[Judi Lynn]

2. Marine life off of Mexico's Baja peninsula on display at Monterey Bay Aquarium

Marine life off of Mexico's Baja peninsula on display at Monterey Bay Aquarium
Karen D'Souza
San Jose Mercury News

March 28, 2016, 4:50 AM

Viva Baja! Get a gander at a fanged green moray eel, a bug-eyed bluespotted jawfish and a regal orange Pacific seahorse, all floating through the majesty of their nautical realm. These are just a few of the whimsical and beautiful creatures you'll encounter at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's new "Viva Baja! Life on the Edge" exhibit, which opened in March.

No passport is needed for this mesmerizing journey to the underwater wonders of Mexico's Baja peninsula, a land steeped in legend and folklore where the cactus-dotted desert meets the endless aquamarine sea. While many of us associate the 800-mile peninsula with powder-soft beaches and salt-rimmed margaritas, the creators of this exhibit want to showcase the richness and diversity of the Baja ecosystem, from the splashy splendors of the Vermilion Sea to the owls that perch amid the golden sands of the Sonoran Desert. Two years in the making, this 7,000-square-foot exhibit frames a vast, tropical panorama that plunges us into the mysteries of the big blue and beyond.

"We wanted to tell a new and unexpected story of Baja, a story of life on the edge," says senior exhibit developer Raul Nava. "It's a very special and unique environment and it's also a fragile ecosystem."

Indeed, some of the creatures on display here are endangered, and the exhibit prompts us to think about the effect people have on nature. Many of the region's legendary coral reefs are in distress. The jaunty Pacific seahorse, which can grow to about a foot in length, is the only type of its kind found off the coast of California, but it's also listed as "vulnerable." The vaquita porpoise, whose name means "little cow" in Spanish, is being threatened by pirate fishing, largely illegal gill-netting for the totoaba, also a critically endangered fish. There are now only 100 vaquitas left to glide through the waters near the peninsula.

Click for photo:

http://www.trbimg.com/img-56f959ce/turbine/sns-tns-bc-ust-calif-aquarium-20160328-003/950/950x534
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The Mangrove Garden display awaits inhabitants at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif., on Wednesday, March 9, 2016. The exhibit called "Viva Baja!" features five different galleries showcasing both sea and land creatures of Baja as well as hands-on interactives for all ages.
(Dan Honda / Bay Area News Group)
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More:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/sns-tns-bc-ust-calif-aquarium-20160328-story.html

[Judi Lynn]

5. Baja's desert mangroves suck up carbon dioxide

Baja's desert mangroves suck up carbon dioxide

Study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography yields surprise finding

By Joshua Emerson Smith | 6:20 p.m. March 29, 2016

As climate change has heightened concerns about the global decline of mangroves, a new study found that such ecosystems along the desert coast of Baja California may be more important than previously thought for keeping heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography discovered that despite their short and stunted appearance, mangroves in these desert locations had surprisingly high rates of sequestering carbon underground. In some cases, the ability was several times greater than that of lush mangroves in tropical locations.

“Desert mangroves specifically in Mexico, which are much smaller and cover a very small total land area, sequester comparable amounts of carbon to tropical mangroves in tropical rainforests,” said Paula Ezcurra, a scientist at Scripps and lead author of the new report.

“I think their value was underestimated. Their value in mitigating climate change was sorely underestimated,” she added.

Mangroves are coastal shrubs or trees with complex root system adapted to saltwater immersion and impacts from waves. Scientists have estimated that mangrove forests are shrinking at an annual rate of 3 percent because of human impacts.

Destruction of mangroves can release thousands of years of stored carbon into the atmosphere.

More:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/mar/29/scripps-oceanography-mangroves-baja-carbon/