Utilities of environmental radioactivity tracers in assessing sequestration potential of carbon in the coastal wetland ecosystems

• Published in: Journal of environmental radioactivity 2024-07, Vol.277, p.107464, Article 107464
• Main Authors: Ren, X., Wang, X.L., Zhang, F.F., Du, J.Q., Du, J.Z., Hong, G.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbon burial/sequestration; Carbon Sequestration; Chronology; Ecosystem; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Geologic Sediments - chemistry; Radionuclides; Sediments; Wetlands
• ISSN: 0265-931X; 1879-1700; 1879-1700
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2024.107464

Demand for accurate estimation of coastal blue carbon sequestration rates in a regular interval has recently surged due to the increasing awareness of nature-based climate solutions to alleviate adverse impacts stemming from the recent global warming. The robust estimation method is, however, far from well-established. The international community requires, moreover, to quantify its effect of “management.” This article tries to provide the environmental isotope community with basic biophysical features of coastal blue carbon ecosystems to identify a suitable set of environmental isotopes for promoting coastal ocean-based climate solutions. This article reviews (i) the primary biophysical characteristics of coastal blue carbon ecosystems and hydrology, (ii) their consequential impact on the accumulation and preservation of organic carbon (OC) in the sediment column, (iii) suitable environmental isotopes to quantifying the sedimentary organic carbon accumulation, outwelling of the carbon-containing byproducts of decomposition of biogenic organic matter and acid neutralizing alkalinity produced in situ sediment to the offshore. Above-ground biomass is not cumulative over the years except for mangrove forests within coastal blue carbon systems. Non-gaseous carbon sequestration and loss occur mainly as a form of sediment organic carbon (SOC) and dissolved carbon in an intertidal and subtidal bottom sediment body in a slow, patchy, and dispersive way, on which this article focuses. Investigating environmental radionuclides is probably the most cost-effective effort to contribute to defining the offshore spatial extent of coastal blue carbon systems except for seagrass beds (e.g., Ra isotopes), to quantify millimeter per year scale carbon accretion and loss within the systems (e.g., 7Be, 210Pb) and a liter per meter of coastline per a day scale water movement from the systems (Ra isotopes). A millimeter-scale spatial and an annual (or less) time-scale resolution offered by the use of environmental isotopes would equip us with a novel tool to enhance the carbon storage capacity of the coastal blue carbon system. [Display omitted] •Enlarging coastal wetland carbon stocks is a nature-based climate solution.•Variations in those stocks require on an annual basis.•Environmental radionuclides are essential for characterizing such variations.•Utilities of environmental radionuclides are discussed for such a purpose.