IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v13y2023i6d10.1038_s41558-023-01682-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coastal vegetation and estuaries are collectively a greenhouse gas sink

Author

Listed:
  • Judith A. Rosentreter

    (Southern Cross University
    Yale University
    Yale University)

  • Goulven G. Laruelle

    (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

  • Hermann W. Bange

    (Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel)

  • Thomas S. Bianchi

    (University of Florida)

  • Julius J. M. Busecke

    (Columbia University)

  • Wei-Jun Cai

    (University of Delaware)

  • Bradley D. Eyre

    (Southern Cross University)

  • Inke Forbrich

    (Marine Biological Laboratory
    University of Toledo)

  • Eun Young Kwon

    (Institute for Basic Science)

  • Taylor Maavara

    (Yale University
    Yale University
    University of Leeds)

  • Nils Moosdorf

    (Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research
    Kiel University
    Southern Cross University)

  • Raymond G. Najjar

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

  • V. V. S. S. Sarma

    (CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography)

  • Bryce Dam

    (Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon)

  • Pierre Regnier

    (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract

Coastal ecosystems release or absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), but the net effects of these ecosystems on the radiative balance remain unknown. We compiled a dataset of observations from 738 sites from studies published between 1975 and 2020 to quantify CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in estuaries and coastal vegetation in ten global regions. We show that the CO2-equivalent (CO2e) uptake by coastal vegetation is decreased by 23–27% due to estuarine CO2e outgassing, resulting in a global median net sink of 391 or 444 TgCO2e yr−1 using the 20- or 100-year global warming potentials, respectively. Globally, total coastal CH4 and N2O emissions decrease the coastal CO2 sink by 9–20%. Southeast Asia, North America and Africa are critical regional hotspots of GHG sinks. Understanding these hotspots can guide our efforts to strengthen coastal CO2 uptake while effectively reducing CH4 and N2O emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith A. Rosentreter & Goulven G. Laruelle & Hermann W. Bange & Thomas S. Bianchi & Julius J. M. Busecke & Wei-Jun Cai & Bradley D. Eyre & Inke Forbrich & Eun Young Kwon & Taylor Maavara & Nils Moosd, 2023. "Coastal vegetation and estuaries are collectively a greenhouse gas sink," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 13(6), pages 579-587, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:13:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1038_s41558-023-01682-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01682-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01682-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-023-01682-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacob Z.-Q. Yeo & Judith A. Rosentreter & Joanne M. Oakes & Kai G. Schulz & Bradley D. Eyre, 2024. "High carbon dioxide emissions from Australian estuaries driven by geomorphology and climate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:13:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1038_s41558-023-01682-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.