Environmental and Soil Benefits of Mangrove Forest Blue Carbon Sinks

Environmental and Soil Benefits of Mangrove Forest Blue Carbon Sinks: Management, Policy and Climate Change

Introduction

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With modern society’s reliance on climate changing chemicals and greenhouse gasses leading to an increase in sea level, hurricane frequency, and other possible environmental disasters as climate change worsens. Management principles will need to be established to help minimize these probable and possible costly disasters. The reliance on costly technologies and clean up processes have made governments look to natural ecosystem services that are provided by the environment as a cost cutting strategy.  The United Nations conference on climate change or the Paris conference agreements, seek to help limit the emissions of all counties involved. With the cost of cleanup and mitigation a growing interest in mangrove forests, seagrass beds, and coral reefs have increased. All three of these ecosystems provide valuable abiotic and biotic properties that could help to mitigate climate change. These systems provide hurricane storm surge mitigation, erosion control, carbon sequestration, and many more positive benefits. This paper will attempt to look at the various benefits coastal mangrove forest provide to both the developed and developing world in regards to blue carbon and soil erosion controls; and the threats and stressors these systems are under do to anthropogenic impacts that may hamper these fragile systems.

Tropical ecosystems represent a mosaic of diverse communities, and are susceptible to extreme climatological events, and anthropogenic impacts that can cause extreme damage or death to these communities. Mangroves along with seagrass beds and coral reefs provide a valuable resource to fish and other aquatic life. Mangrove estuary ecosystems are among the most diverse and productive environments on the planet. These forests provide valuable ecosystem services like refuge to juvenile fish and invertebrates, surfaces for epibiont species, and sequester carbon and stabilize coastlines.

The Mangroves represent a large group of plants that have adapted to a very specific niche, brackish intertidal coast zones of tropical and temperate biomes. The specie is highly salt tolerant and adaptable to a wide range of salt concentration zones. These adaptations allow for the trees to live in very hostile habitats that other plant species would die in. 

To survive in these hostile hypersaline environments mangrove species have evolved very specialized traits to avoid hypersaline conditions within their cell structures. The Mangroves maintain their water balance by creating a cellular environment with low water potential minimizing water diffusion to outside sources (Reef and Lovelock 2014). Reef and Lovelock (2014) found that by maintaining dephosphorylation within the root system the mangroves minimize water loss under hyperosmotic conditions present in the soil allowing the tree to survive. The trees have the ability to exclude up to 95% of the salt in the waters around their structure, allowing for the trees to keep their water/carbon intake in balance (Alongi, 2002). This complex combination of interactions create an ecosystem that is highly anoxic, with a great potential to become a carbon sink.

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Mangroves Root systems and benefits they provide:

Mangroves are known for their unique root structure which branch out of the ground sediment, acting as anchors. These anchors slow erosion, and preform carbon sink processes, trapping the loose carbon in the anoxic conditions of the sediments with an estimated 174 grams per cubic meter per year.  Mangroves have the ability to survive and grow within the salt-fresh water intertidal zones; however due to this habitat requirement mangroves also face some of the highest mortality rates of any tropical tree species from both anthropogenic and natural events and changes.

Threats to Mangrove Infrastructure:

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 Mcleod et al. analyzed the various threats that coastal habitat face, finding that over a third of mangrove, salt marsh and seagrass beds have been lost worldwide (Mcleod et al.  2011). Chef among theses impactors are humans and infastructuire development. These impact of dredging, drainage, and diking to stabilize coastal shoreline for urbanization causes mass die offs to these habitats, like mangrove forests or near shore seagrass beds. These types of destructive activities have slowed in recent years because of the recognition mangroves potential role in climate change, deforestation of mangroves has slowed to .66% a year leading up to 2005 (Mcleod et al. 2010). While both systems can survive by themselves under certain conditions, if a mangrove forest and seagrass bed are in close proximity and the mangroves are destroyed, then the seagrass beds have a very high probability of dying off to happen (Mcleod et al. 2010, Fourqurean et al 2012, Larvey et al. 2013).

Mangrove Forests, a Storm Surge Mitigation Habitat:

Aquatic inshore habitats like mangroves and seagrass beds also face some of the most extreme storm impacts.  These habitats are usually the frontline defense against storm forces: waves and wind. Since these systems will be the first “structures” a hurricane hits, they experience the full force of the hurricane. Mangrove forest and seagrass beds act as bioshields, breaking up the storm surge and winds through making the forces lower than it could have been. With this natural surge mitigation these forest provide, many coastal communities and governments have seen the benefits of having mangroves planted en-mass along their coasts.

Of the mangrove populations, Southeast Asia holds over 41% of the world’s total, of that Bangladesh holds approximately 24.6% of the world wide mangrove population (Carter et al. 2015). Bangladesh holds the largest mangrove population making the coastline a greatly diverse ecosystem, however to the government of Bangladesh this is a secondary objective. The main reason the country has the highest mangrove population of the world is not because of biodiversity but as a form of natural storm control. Since the 1960s the Bangladeshi government has been directly responsible and a primary care giver to the mangrove forests along their coasts in order to create a “greenbelt” to protect and preserve property and communities along their shoreline (Carter et al. 2015). However do the potential income coastal communities can create in terms of touristy and aquaculture these forest have seen a decrease in recent years as the economic benefits outweigh the cost of storm mitigation. 

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Located on the island of St. Johns is a national monument named Hurricane Hole; it is a natural land and forest formation which is used extensively for hurricane protection. The natural geology of the land creates a three-sided shield against hurricanes; this compounded with the massive amount of mangrove and seagrass beds within the immediate area create an almost perfect shield against storms events and damaging forces.  The United States government recognized this and established this site as a federal park to protect the natural processes of the location. When a hurricane approaches the island, all boats are directed to this location where they are moored in the coves, protecting the boats. The boats and ships of St. Johns are a major cornerstone of the Caribbean Island’s economy and production. The islands infrastructure may get damaged from the hurricane however the boats suffer minimally, allowing for the fisheries to recovery and help drive the local economies. Allowing for the boat and harbors to restart operations or assist with recovery as soon as possible.