Ten Year Evaluation of Carbon Stock in Mangrove Plantation Reforested from an Abandoned Shrimp Pond

Abstract

Forest carbon stocks-both in terms of the standing biomass and the soil organic carbon (OC)-were monitored in the mangrove plantation reforested from an abandoned shrimp pond for the 10 years following land excavation. Excavation to a level of 25 cm below the existing ground level increased the inundation time of tidal water from 463 to 7,597 hours per year, resulting in a significant increase of survival/growth rates for planted mangrove species, Rhizophora mucronata (RM) and Bruguiera cylindrica (BC), and of carbon stocks as well. RM showed high rates of standing biomass accumulation with 98.7 ton/ha while 28.8 ton/ha for BC was measured over 10 years in the excavated area. In contrast, the unexcavated area showed low rates of biomass accumulation, 1.04 ton/ha for RM and 0.53 ton/ha for BC in the same period. The excavated area recorded a twofold increase of soil OC in the upper 5 cm of the surface soil from 71.8 to 154.8 ton/ha in 10 years, however it decreased to 68.3 ton/ha in the unexcavated area where soil OC is susceptible to decomposition. These results imply that the potential of carbon sinks in reforested land from abandoned areas cannot be developed unless hydraulic conditions are properly recovered. The fast growing species Avicennia marina (AM) grew quickly for the first two years after colonization but its growth slowed down afterwards, showing a limited ability of carbon capture.

Ecological Variability and Carbon Stock Estimates of Mangrove Ecosystems in Northwestern Madagascar

“…Mangrove ecosystems also support high floral and faunal biodiversity [9,[12][13][14] and sequester significant amounts of CO 2 [15,16]. While numerous studies have measured above-ground biomass in mangrove trees (e.g., [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]), comparatively few have quantified above-and below-ground carbon (C) pools, including soil (i.e., [15,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]); however, it is the deep, organic material enriched soils that contain the vast majority of C stocks [35][36][37][38]. Factoring in soil, mangroves have been found to be amongst the most carbon-dense forests in the tropics, with similar or greater above-and exceptionally larger below-ground stocks compared with the terrestrial systems reported in several studies [15,27,[32][33][34]39].…”

Novel ecosystems in the Anthropocene: a revision of the novel ecosystem concept for pragmatic applications

“…Soil organic carbon decreased over the study period (Fig. 3), and Matsui et al (2012) expect this trend to continue because of accelerated decomposition during dry periods.…”

“…Novel ecosystem case study: abandoned shrimp ponds and mangroves in Thailand An abandoned shrimp aquaculture site in Thailand (Matsui et al 2012) meets our definition of a novel ecosystem. Originally a mangrove forest, the site was converted into a commercial shrimp pond and then abandoned in the 1980s.…”

“…The survival rate of 2 mangrove species, Rhizophora mucronata and Bruguiera cylindrica, from 5 months to 10 years after planting. Soil organic carbon (tC/ha) of the excavated and unexcavated area illustrates a decline in carbon in the excavated area (Matsui et al 2012). Note that the initial increase is likely due to incorporation into the soil of the unsuccessful planted mangroves.…”

Blue carbon: a study of the potential of coastal ecosystem resource management in global climate policy and carbon markets

“…As much as 50% of blue carbon ecosystems have been lost in the last half century, and ongoing degradation and destruction of these areas could account for as much as 19% of emissions from deforestation globally (Donato 163 et al 2011;Fourqurean et al 2012;Pendleton et al 2012). Carbon sequestration capacities appear to be lower in restored areas, in comparison with undisturbed ecosystems (Matsui et al 2012). …”