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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]
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."
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 the sediment.
Salt marshes can be generally divided into the high marsh, low marsh, and the upland border. The low marsh is closer to the ocean, with it being flooded at nearly every tide except low tide. [53] The high marsh is located between the low marsh and the upland border and it usually only flooded when higher than usual tides are present. [53]
Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses make up the majority of the ocean's vegetated habitats. They only equal 0.05% of the plant biomass on land. But they store carbon 40 times faster than tropical forests. [132] Bottom trawling, dredging for coastal development and fertilizer runoff have damaged coastal habitats.
Halophytes exclude salt through their roots, secrete the accumulated salt through their aerial parts and sequester salt in senescent leaves and/or the bark. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] Mangroves are facultative halophytes and Bruguiera is known for its special ultrafiltration system that can filter approximately 90% of Na + ions from the surrounding ...
The salt-marsh communities of the NVC were described in Volume 5 of British Plant Communities, first published in 2000, along with the other maritime communities (those of shingle strandline and sand-dunes and maritime cliffs) and vegetation of open habitats.
The general effect is that the plants in the marsh die off and brown, leaving dead organic matter, and ultimately open sediment. Without strong plant roots holding the sediment, these open areas of land erode, causing the salt marsh to retreat back to the mainland. [1] Dieback zones lack their main producers, such as the salt marsh cord grass ...