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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coastal Ocean Processes
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1428229
This article is part of the Research Topic Carbon Cycle Vulnerability Across Coastal and Forested Wetlands in Response to Anthropogenic Perturbations View all 5 articles

Pattern of total organic carbon in sediments within the mangrove ecosystem

Provisionally accepted
Yue Li Yue Li Xiaoyan Zhou Xiaoyan Zhou Zhijun Dai Zhijun Dai *Chuqi Long Chuqi Long
  • State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, Faculty of Earth Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The sedimentary total organic carbon (TOC) in mangrove ecosystems plays an essential role in the global carbon storage. Nevertheless, little information is available about the pattern of TOC in sediments varying from bare and flat to those beneath mangroves. To find out the roles of new-developing mangroves in sedimentary TOC accumulation, a serials of sediment samples were collected from the creek mudflat zone (CMZ) through the fringe mangrove zone (FMZ) to the interior mangrove zone (IMZ) in young mangrove system of Nanliu River Delta in China. Sediment compositions, TOC, total nitrogen (TN), molar C/N ratios, and carbon stable isotopes (13C) were analyzed to examine the accumulation processes. The results revealed the distinct differences in the sedimentary TOC values, with an obvious increasing trend from the CMZ and FMZ to the IMZ. We quantified that terrestrials, marine-derived and mangrove-derived sources contributed 39.2-74.1%, 24.7-63.1% and 0.9-6.9%, respectively, to the sedimentary TOC in the mangrove ecosystems. The organic carbon accumulation rates ranged from 2.59 to 269.60 g•m-2•a-1, with values of 8.77±19.87, 24.78±12.53, 167.19±57.79 g•m-2•a-1 for CMZ, FMZ and IMZ. Our work highlights information showing that young mangrove forests of the tropical delta have important potential for carbon storage.

    Keywords: ：Total organic carbon, Organic carbon accumulation rates, sources, sediments, Mangrove ecosystem

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Zhou, Dai and Long. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhijun Dai, State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, Faculty of Earth Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, Shanghai Municipality, China

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