Blue carbon from the past forecasts the future
Abstract
When knowledge of a system is imperfect, thresholds are extremely useful tools for decision-makers. Sea level rise (SLR) threatens intertidal coastal wetlands because these aquatic plants will drown as water depths exceed their physiological tolerance limits. For mangroves—trees and shrubs that grow in tidal waters of the tropics or subtropics—the threshold for SLR has been elusive. On page 1118 of this issue, Saintilan et al. (1) deduce that the threshold SLR for mangrove ecosystems is 6 to 7 mm/year. This discovery can help inform decisions on how to sustain mangroves, which provide 200 million coastal people with essential ecosystem services. These include protection from intense storms and waves, reduction in the impact of coastal flooding, sequestering of carbon, improvement in water quality, and preservation of biodiversity and fisheries (2).
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References and Notes
1
N. Saintilan et al., Science 368, 1118 (2020).
2
E. B. Barbier et al., Ecol. Monogr. 81, 169 (2011).
3
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group 1 Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” T. F. Stocker et al., Eds. (IPCC, 2013).
4
J. P. Syvitski et al., Nat. Geosci. 2, 681 (2009).
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P. S. J. Minderhoud et al., Sci. Total Environ. 634, 715 (2018).
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M. Becker et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 1867 (2020).
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C. E. Lovelock et al., Nature 526, 559 (2015).
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L. Ding et al., Chin. Geogr. Sci. 29, 1 (2019).
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K. W. Krauss et al., New Phytol. 202, 19 (2014).
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G. Grill et al., Nature 569, 215 (2019).
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E. Mcleod et al., Front. Ecol. Environ. 9, 552 (2011).
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K. Rogers et al., Nature 567, 91 (2019).
13
C. R. Field et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114, 9134 (2017).
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Science
Volume 368 | Issue 6495
5 June 2020
5 June 2020
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Copyright © 2020, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
This is an article distributed under the terms of the Science Journals Default License.
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Published in print: 5 June 2020
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- Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of mangrove Bruguiera gymnorrhiza ( L.) Lam. ex Savigny , Mitochondrial DNA Part B, 6, 7, (2076-2078), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2021.1914220
- Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of mangrove Rhizophora apiculata Blume (Rhizophoraceae) , Mitochondrial DNA Part B, 6, 7, (2071-2073), (2021).https://doi.org/10.1080/23802359.2021.1923421
- Contrasting Water Use, Stomatal Regulation, Embolism Resistance, and Drought Responses of Two Co-Occurring Mangroves, Water, 13, 14, (1945), (2021).https://doi.org/10.3390/w13141945
- Recent Carbon Storage and Burial Exceed Historic Rates in the San Juan Bay Estuary Peri-Urban Mangrove Forests (Puerto Rico, United States), Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 4, (2021).https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.676691
- Spatiotemporal Change and the Natural–Human Driving Processes of a Megacity’s Coastal Blue Carbon Storage, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 16, (8879), (2021).https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168879
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