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Salt marshes also provide essential refuge habitat for young fish and crustaceans, provisioning coastal fisheries (Boesch and Turner 1984) [48] that account for 90% of the world's fish catch (UNEP 2006). [49] Salt marshes also sequester carbon, which will be an important ecosystem service as climate change intensifies (Chmura et al. 2003). [50]
Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. [2]: 2248 ... sea grasses, and salt marshes, [56] is an important carbon reservoir; ...
Blue carbon is defined by the IPCC as "Biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management." [2]: 2220 Another definition states: "Blue carbon refers to organic carbon that is captured and stored by the oceans and coastal ecosystems, particularly by vegetated coastal ecosystems: seagrass meadows, tidal marshes, and mangrove forests."
Salt marsh during low tide, mean low tide, high tide and very high tide (spring tide). A coastal salt marsh in Perry, Florida, USA.. A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides.
[16] [8] [17] A study in the intertidal region of a New England salt marsh showed that excess levels of nutrients might increase N 2 O emissions rather than sequester them. [ 16 ] Data on nitrous oxide fluxes from wetlands in the southern hemisphere are lacking, as are ecosystem-based studies including the role of dominant organisms that alter ...
This ability to store carbon is important as atmospheric carbon levels continue to rise. Blue carbon refers to carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere by the world's coastal marine ecosystems , mostly mangroves , salt marshes , seagrasses and potentially macroalgae , through plant growth and the accumulation and burial of organic matter in ...
Wetlands store approximately 44.6 million tonnes of carbon per year globally (estimate from 2003). [116] In salt marshes and mangrove swamps in particular, the average carbon sequestration rate is 210 g CO 2 m −2 y −1 while peatlands sequester approximately 20–30 g CO 2 m −2 y −1. [116] [117]
Salt marsh dieback results in the death of marsh-specific plants and the erosion of the landscape. High salt marsh dieback, or salt marsh browning, is the primary force in salt marsh degradation in the high marsh. The general effect is that the plants in the marsh die off and brown, leaving dead organic matter, and ultimately open sediment.