TY - JOUR
T1 - Sedimentary Carbon Stocks:
T2 - A National Assessment of Scotland's Fjords.
AU - Smeaton, Craig
AU - Austin, William
AU - Davies, Althea
AU - Howe, John
N1 - 19th EGU General Assembly, EGU2017, proceedings from the conference held 23-28 April, 2017 in Vienna, Austria., p.7926
© Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
PY - 2017/4/30
Y1 - 2017/4/30
N2 - Coastal sediments have been shown to be globally significant
repositories for carbon (C) with an estimated 126.2 Tg of C being buried
annually (Duarte et al. 2005). Though it is clear these areas are
important for the long-term storage of C the actual quantity of C held
within coastal sediment remains largely unaccounted for. The first step
to understanding the role the coastal ocean plays in the global C cycle
is to quantify the C held within these coastal sediments. Of the
different coastal environment fjords have been shown to be hotspots for
C burial with approximately 11 % of the annual global marine carbon
sequestration occurring within fjordic environments (Smith et al. 2015).
Through the development of a joint geophysical and geochemical
methodology we estimated that the sediment in a mid-latitude fjord holds
26.9 ± 0.5 Mt of C (Smeaton et al., 2016), with these results
suggesting that Scottish mid-latitude fjords could be a significant
unaccounted store of C equivalent to their terrestrial counterparts
(i.e. peatlands). Through the application of the joint geophysical and
geochemical methodology developed by Smeaton et al (2016) to a number of
other mid-latitude fjords, we will create detailed estimations of the
sedimentary C stored at these individual sites. Using these detailed C
stock estimations in conjunction with upscaling techniques we will
establish the first national estimation of fjordic sedimentary C stocks.
The data produced will allow for the sedimentary C stocks to be compared
to other national C stocks, such as the Scottish peatlands (Chapman et
al. 2009) and forestry (Forestry Commission, 2016). Alongside
quantifying this large unaccounted for store of C in the coastal ocean
this work also lays foundations for future work to understand the role
of the coastal ocean in the global C cycle. Duarte, C. M., Middelburg,
J. J., and Caraco, N.: Major role of marine vegetation on the oceanic
carbon cycle, Biogeosciences, 2, 1-8, doi:10.5194/bg-2-1-2005, 2005.
Smeaton, C., Austin, W. E. N., Davies, A. L., Baltzer, A., Abell, R. E.,
and Howe, J. A.: Substantial stores of sedimentary carbon held in
mid-latitude fjords, Biogeosciences, 13, 5771-5787,
doi:10.5194/bg-13-5771-2016, 2016. Smith, R. W., Bianchi, T. S.,
Allison, M., Savage, C., and Galy, V.: High rates of organic carbon
burial in fjord sediments globally, Nat. Geosci., 8, 450-453,
doi:10.1038/NGEO2421, 2015.
AB - Coastal sediments have been shown to be globally significant
repositories for carbon (C) with an estimated 126.2 Tg of C being buried
annually (Duarte et al. 2005). Though it is clear these areas are
important for the long-term storage of C the actual quantity of C held
within coastal sediment remains largely unaccounted for. The first step
to understanding the role the coastal ocean plays in the global C cycle
is to quantify the C held within these coastal sediments. Of the
different coastal environment fjords have been shown to be hotspots for
C burial with approximately 11 % of the annual global marine carbon
sequestration occurring within fjordic environments (Smith et al. 2015).
Through the development of a joint geophysical and geochemical
methodology we estimated that the sediment in a mid-latitude fjord holds
26.9 ± 0.5 Mt of C (Smeaton et al., 2016), with these results
suggesting that Scottish mid-latitude fjords could be a significant
unaccounted store of C equivalent to their terrestrial counterparts
(i.e. peatlands). Through the application of the joint geophysical and
geochemical methodology developed by Smeaton et al (2016) to a number of
other mid-latitude fjords, we will create detailed estimations of the
sedimentary C stored at these individual sites. Using these detailed C
stock estimations in conjunction with upscaling techniques we will
establish the first national estimation of fjordic sedimentary C stocks.
The data produced will allow for the sedimentary C stocks to be compared
to other national C stocks, such as the Scottish peatlands (Chapman et
al. 2009) and forestry (Forestry Commission, 2016). Alongside
quantifying this large unaccounted for store of C in the coastal ocean
this work also lays foundations for future work to understand the role
of the coastal ocean in the global C cycle. Duarte, C. M., Middelburg,
J. J., and Caraco, N.: Major role of marine vegetation on the oceanic
carbon cycle, Biogeosciences, 2, 1-8, doi:10.5194/bg-2-1-2005, 2005.
Smeaton, C., Austin, W. E. N., Davies, A. L., Baltzer, A., Abell, R. E.,
and Howe, J. A.: Substantial stores of sedimentary carbon held in
mid-latitude fjords, Biogeosciences, 13, 5771-5787,
doi:10.5194/bg-13-5771-2016, 2016. Smith, R. W., Bianchi, T. S.,
Allison, M., Savage, C., and Galy, V.: High rates of organic carbon
burial in fjord sediments globally, Nat. Geosci., 8, 450-453,
doi:10.1038/NGEO2421, 2015.
M3 - Meeting abstract
SN - 1607-7962
VL - 19
JO - Geophysical Research Abstracts
JF - Geophysical Research Abstracts
ER -