Blue Carbon
Assessing Salt Marsh Carbon Dynamics and Resilience Across the Landscape
Our work aims to track carbon flow through coastal salt marsh ecosystems and understand how this impacts net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) and marsh ecosystem resilience. We do this by measuring carbon stocks and fluxes as plant production and CO2 transfer between the ecosystem, atmosphere, and surrounding environments. We apply remote sensing methods to scale-up field-based findings over space and time and investigate broader trends. A key part of marsh resilience to stressors like sea-level rise is production of the root structure, or belowground biomass, of marsh grasses. We employ ecosystem modeling techniques to quantify spatiotemporal trends in belowground biomass stocks.
Upcoming research aims to quantify the tidally-driven lateral flux of CO2 in salt marshes. This will help to resolve a missing piece of the marsh NECB. Additionally, we are expanding our ecosystem modeling techniques to enhance spatial resolution and species representation. These ecosystems assessments will be valuable tools to prioritize conservation and restoration efforts.
Publications:
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coming soon
Funding and Collaborators:
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coming soon