BackgroundDetermining national carbon stocks is essential in the framework of ongoing climate change mitigation actions. Presently, assessment of carbon stocks in the context of greenhouse gas (GHG)-reporting on a nation-by-nation basis focuses on the terrestrial realm, i.e., carbon held in living plant biomass and soils, and on potential changes in these stocks in response to anthropogenic activities. However, while the ocean and underlying sediments store substantial quantities of carbon, this pool is presently not considered in the context of national inventories. The ongoing disturbances to both terrestrial and marine ecosystems as a consequence of food production, pollution, climate change and other factors, as well as alteration of linkages and C-exchange between continental and oceanic realms, highlight the need for a better understanding of the quantity and vulnerability of carbon stocks in both systems. We present a preliminary comparison of the stocks of organic carbon held in continental margin sediments within the Exclusive Economic Zone of maritime nations with those in their soils. Our study focuses on Namibia, where there is a wealth of marine sediment data, and draws comparisons with sediment data from two other countries with different characteristics, which are Pakistan and the United Kingdom.ResultsResults indicate that marine sediment carbon stocks in maritime nations can be similar in magnitude to those of soils. Therefore, if human activities in these areas are managed, carbon stocks in the oceanic realm—particularly over continental margins—could be considered as part of national GHG inventories.ConclusionsThis study shows that marine sediment organic carbon stocks can be equal in size or exceed terrestrial carbon stocks of maritime nations. This provides motivation both for improved assessment of sedimentary carbon inventories and for reevaluation of the way that carbon stocks are assessed and valued. The latter carries potential implications for the management of human activities on coastal environments and for their GHG inventories.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13021-017-0077-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Schematic drawings of route directions are one of the most common forms of graphic communication. People make sketches to communicate geographical ideas, and professionally designed schematic maps give orientation to thousands of users of a public transport system. Creating a schematic map for representing a transport network may be seen as a straightforward task; however, the underlying design of such maps can be quite complex. Map designers apply, consciously or subconsciously, various cartographic generalization techniques to emphasize important information and to improve the clarity of map content. At present, traditional mapping and GIS literature offers very little guidance to a map designer seeking cartographic rules or practical ideas for representing the elaborate route data of public transport systems schematically. This article aims to contribute to the design challenges of schematic, route-based mapping. Information about schematic maps and symbolization of route-based data is given. A case study of schematic map design for a public transport network is presented to show the need for support of cartographic science for the creation of schematic transport maps.

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