Seagrass ecosystem adjacent to mangroves store higher amount of organic carbon of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andaman Sea

Amrit Kumar Mishra; Prasannajit Acharya; Deepak Apte; Syed Hilal Farooq

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115135

Seagrass ecosystem adjacent to mangroves store higher amount of organic carbon of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andaman Sea

Mar Pollut Bull. 2023 Aug:193:115135. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115135. Epub 2023 Jun 18.

Authors

Amrit Kumar Mishra¹, Prasannajit Acharya², Deepak Apte³, Syed Hilal Farooq⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Argul, Khurda 752050, India; Department of Marine Conservation, Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, Dr. Salim Ali Chowk, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Road, Opp. Lion Gate, Mumbai 400001, India. Electronic address: akm17@iitbbs.ac.in.
² Environmental Science Program, Department of Chemistry, ITER, S'O'A University, Odisha, India.
³ Srusti Conservation Foundation, Flat no-104, Hissa 8, Soba Garden Saffron, C Pune CIT Mahatma Society, Pune 411038, Maharashtra, India.
⁴ School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Argul, Khurda 752050, India.

PMID: 37339534
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115135

Abstract

This study quantified the organic carbon (C_org) stocks in Thalassia hemprichii meadows that are (i) adjacent to mangroves (MG), and (ii) without mangroves (WMG), in tropical Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) of India. In the top 10 cm of the sediment, C_org content was 1.8-fold higher at the MG sites than the WMG sites. The total C_org stocks (sediment + biomass) in the 144 ha of seagrass meadows at MG sites (988.74 ± 138.77 Mg C) was 1.9-fold higher than in 148 ha of WMG sites. Protection and management of T. hemprichii meadows of ANI can lead to emission avoidance of around 5447.33 (MG; 3595.12 + WMG: 1852.21) tons of CO₂. The social cost of the carbon stocks in these T. hemprichii meadows is around US$ 0.30 and 0.16 million at the MG and WMG sites, respectively, showcasing the importance of ANI's seagrass ecosystems as nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation.

Keywords: Blue carbon; Mangroves; Nature-based Solution (NbS); Seagrass; Thalassia hemprichii; Tropical islands.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Carbon Sequestration
Carbon*
Ecosystem*
Geologic Sediments

Substances

Carbon