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Blue Carbon

Blue Carbon

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29 views11 pages

Blue Carbon

Blue Carbon

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ABHIJIT MITRA
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Carbon Sequestration by Carbon Sequestration by

Coastal Floral Community Coastal Floral Community


A ground zero observation on blue carbon
A ground zero observation on blue carbon
Abhijit Mitra P Sufia Zaman
As nature-based approaches for the mitigation of climate change
Abhijit Mitra P Sufia Zaman
are increasingly seen as part of the solution, blue carbon has
recently been receiving greater international attention. This has
stimulated renewed interest in better management, conservation
and restoration of coastal ecosystems including mangrove forests,
seagrass meadows, tidal salt marshes, and seaweed beds for the
purpose of climate change mitigation. However, a number of gaps
still exist in our scientific knowledge on coastal biodiversity, which
are critical to developing blue carbon projects for the international
carbon market.
Carbon Sequestration by Coastal Floral Community focuses
on some of these important issues. Apart from standardizing
ecological approach in estimating blue carbon in various vegetation
compartments, this book also presents a few important case
studies, which serve as the basics of hands-on-scientific training in
estimating the magnitude of stored carbon in mangroves, salt marsh,
seagrass, seaweeds and phytoplankton. The influence of salinity,
nutrients and several relevant hydrological parameters on the rate
of blue carbon sequestration has also been critically analysed.

The Energy and Resources Institute The Energy and Resources Institute
Carbon Sequestration by
Coastal Floral Community
Carbon Sequestration by
Coastal Floral Community

Abhijit Mitra P Sufia Zaman

The Energy and Resources Institute


© The Energy and Resources Institute, 2014

ISBN 978-81-7993-551-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a


retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

All export rights for this book vest exclusively with The Energy and Resources Institute
(TERI). Unauthorized export is a violation of terms of sale and is subject to legal action.

Suggested citation
Mitra, Abhijit and Sufia Zaman. 2014. Carbon Sequestration by Coastal Floral Community.
New Delhi: TERI

Published by
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
TERI Press Tel. 2468 2100 or 4150 4900
Darbari Seth Block Fax 2468 2144 or 2468 2145
IHC Complex, Lodhi Road India +91 • Delhi (0) 11
New Delhi – 110 003 Email teripress@teri.res.in
India Website www.teriin.org

Printed in India
Preface

Coastal ecosystems, deltaic lobes at the river mouth or estuarine


ecosystems sustain a unique spectrum of halophytic vegetation. These
vegetations, preferably the mangroves, tidal salt marshes, seagrass
meadows, and seaweeds store considerable load of carbon in their
biomass and soils and act as sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide
through primary production. This carbon, associated with marine,
coastal and estuarine ecosystems is commonly referred to as blue
carbon. The tiny free floating producer community of the aquatic phase
(phytoplankton) in marine and estuarine compartment also sequesters
and stores carbon and comes under the banner of blue carbon. Recent
scientific syntheses have placed the global total estimated emissions
from degraded and converted coastal wetlands each year at between
300 and 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, approximately equal
to the annual carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industry for
Poland and Germany, respectively. The rates of carbon sequestration
and storage in these coastal ecosystems are comparable to the rates
in carbon-rich terrestrial ecosystems such as tropical rainforests or
freshwater peatlands. Unlike most terrestrial systems, which reach
soil carbon equilibrium within decades, deposition of carbon dioxide
in coastal ecosystem sediment can continue over millennia. However,
when degraded or destroyed, these systems can become sources of
carbon dioxide emissions, due to oxidization of biomass and organic
matter stored in the soil, litter, and detritus. Current rates of loss
of mangroves, seagrass beds and salt marshes, caused largely by
human activities such as conversion, coastal development and over-
harvesting, estimated to be between 0.7% and 2% a year, are among
VI PREFACE

the highest rates of loss of any ecosystem on the planet Earth. This is of
considerable concern with respect to their role in carbon sequestration
and emissions.
Seaweed beds and kelp forests are also ecosystems of interest for
blue carbon sequestration and storage. However, unlike other blue
carbon ecosystems, seaweed and kelp do not have soil substrates and
thus do not retain large amounts of carbon in sediments, although they
can act as carbon sinks by reducing dissolved inorganic carbon.
The phytoplankton community in the aquatic systems is of special
interest because of their rapid rate of production, growth, and life
cycle completion time. Researchers working in the areas of blue
carbon have concluded that a given population of phytoplankton
can double its numbers in the order of once per day. In other words,
phytoplankton respond very rapidly to changes in their environment.
Large populations of this organism, sustained over long periods of
time would significantly lower atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and,
in turn, lower average temperatures.
As nature-based approaches for the mitigation of climate change
are increasingly seen as part of the solution, blue carbon has recently
been receiving greater international attention. This has stimulated
renewed interest in better management, conservation and restoration
of coastal ecosystems including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows,
tidal salt marshes, and seaweed beds for the purpose of climate
change mitigation. However, a number of gaps still exist in our
scientific knowledge on coastal biodiversity, which are critical to
developing blue carbon projects for the international carbon market.
The present book has focused on some of these important issues.
Apart from standardizing ecological approach in estimating blue
carbon in various vegetation compartments, the book also presents
a few important case studies (as annexure), which can serve as the
basics of hand-on-scientific training in estimating the magnitude
of stored carbon in mangroves, salt marsh, seagrass, seaweeds, and
phytoplankton. The influence of salinity, nutrients, and several relevant
hydrological parameters on the rate of blue carbon sequestration has
also been critically analysed.
The book has its own individuality not because of the lucidness of
language and presentation of relevant case studies, but for bringing in
frontline the long-term data (30 years) of Indian Sundarbans. Criticism
and debates are the hallmarks of any climate change-related book,
PREFACE VII

as a “noisy zone” always lies in such subjects, where it is difficult to


standardize the estimation technology and allometric models related
to blue carbon sequestration. This is mainly because the coastal and
estuarine floral components are not only diverse in their morphology,
anatomy and physiology, but also exhibit different growth patterns in
different environmental conditions. Such debatable issues have been
addressed in this book and attempts have been made by the authors
to link and merge the scientific findings in the matrix of common
mass, professionals, researchers, policy makers, and environmentalists
in order to impart momentum to the blue carbon vertical in the
international research and policy platform.
Acknowledgements

The authors developed the base on mangrove ecology from Professor


Yusuf Ali Zamadar as disciples. Professor Ali, the main backbone of
the Marine Science discipline in the University of Calcutta (India) and
guru of mangrove gurukul, taught the authors the art of living with
nature. He inspired the authors to work in the rigorous environment
of Sundarbans with sincerity, dedication and honest effort to reveal
the ground reality of the ecosystem.
The authors got inspiration from Dr. Atanu Kumar Raha when he
was the PCCF and Head of Forest Force, Govt. of West Bengal during
2007 to 2012. Dr. Raha with excellent expertise in remote sensing and
GIS technology helped the authors to develop map on phytopigment
variations in Sundarban ecosystem. A few maps in the book have
been taken from the Ph.D thesis of Dr. Raha.
The authors greatly acknowledge the infrastructural facility offered
by Techno India University, Salt Lake Campus while preparing the
manuscript. The authors also received inspiration for touching the
sky from Mr. Goutam Roychowdhury.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the field data generated by
Dr. Kakoli Banerjee (in the field of phytoplankton) without which
the chapter on plankton could not be completed. Dr. Banerjee also
critically scanned the manuscript and provided constructive inputs
to better it.
The authors are indebted to Dr. Subhro Bikash Bhattacharyya for
his tireless sampling from the Sundarban mangrove forest, which
helped the authors to carry out the scientific analysis of soil, water
and plankton community through seasons and years.
Carbon Sequestration by Coastal Floral
Community: A ground zero observation
on blue carbon

Author : Abhijit Mitra, Suf ia


Publisher : TERI Press ISBN : 9788179935514
Zaman

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