coastal carbon_andy steven

Coastal Carbon: significance and opportuni4es

Andy Steven– Australian Coastal Ecosystem Facility Director July 31, 2012

Australia’s Coasts •  Biodiverse •  Highly producCve •  Significant store of carbon •  Undergoing significant

change •  Un-‐quanCfied and

unaccounted for

Carbon Carbon: Types and Sources Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) •  Biologically and chemically mediated Organic Ma<er (OM) •  Dissolved and ParCculate •  Autochthonous and Allochthonous

What and Where is Blue Carbon?

Coastal Carbon has significant sequestraCon potenCal

5

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500

Tropical Forests

Oceanic Mangroves

Estuarine Mangroves

Tidal Salt Marshes

Seagrasses

Organic Soil Carbon

Living Biomass

Soil-‐carbon values for first meter of depth only (Total depth = up to several meters)

tCO2e per Hectare, Global Averages

For Comparison:

Carbon losses from land and coastal habitat degradaCon

Sacramento Delta •  1,800 km2 of wetlands •  released 1 GtCO2 (1.5% of

California total GHG emissions)

•  C sequestered over 5,000 years, released in 100 y

Global rate of Loss •  Seagrass: 1% per year, global

loss 29%, in 19th century •  Mangrove: 1,020 km2 y-‐1 •  Saltmarsh: 1–2% per year,

30% loss in SE Australia •  Release ~ 0.25 MtCO2 km2 m-‐1

PotenCal Significance in Australia

Initial test of concept •  Science: how much carbon can be lost/restored over time? •  Economics: at what cost? •  Policy: can current policy frameworks adapt?

Long term rate of carbon accumulation in sediment (gC m2 y-1)

0 50 100 150 200 250

tropical forerests

temperate forest

Boreal forests

croplands

deserts

Wetlands

seagrass

mangrove

tidal saltmarsh

Area (km2)

0 20000 40000 60000 80000

Australia

Queensland

New South Wales

Victoria

Tasmania

South Australia

Western Australia

Northern Territory mangrove seagrass saltmarsh

Poten4al C burial ~ 8.6 Mt yr-‐1

TERN and Coastal Carbon

Australian Coastal Ecosystem Facility (ACEF) •  Provide enduring access to coastal

data of naConal importance •  Habitat mapping •  Carbon Cluster parameter Library

SEQ Peri-‐urban Supersite •  Measuring changes in carbon flux,

producCvity, sequestraCon

QuanCfying Carbon through the CSIRO Marine and Carbon Biogeochemistry Cluster

QuanCtaCve Modeling and Economic Assessment

CSIRO CARBON CLUSTER ACTIVITIES Objec4ves •  carbon inventory informaCon on sources, speciaCon, stocks and

flows •  process understanding of changes in carbon cycling resulCng from

natural and anthropogenic change

Ac4vi4es 1.   Carbon sequestra4on, stoichiometry and stores potenCal of

representaCve Australian coastal ecosystems 2.   Benthic community metabolism and benthic-‐pelagic coupling 3.   Pelagic community metabolism in Australian coastal waters 4.  Scaling up to regional inventories and data assimila4on and

Parameter and Model Uncertain4es

CSIRO & TERN Interests & AcCviCes

CSIRO •  Model Development •  BioaccumulaCon Model development

•  Economic Assessment of Carbon SequestraCon

TERN •  Data and imagery •  Host Parameter library

Measuring Carbon in an urbanising estuary -‐ the SEQ Periurban supersite

Key Ques4ons •  Dissolved inorganic

Carbon fluxes •  Organic Carbon Sources

and contribuCon to producCvity

•  Carbon sequestraCon potenCal

•  Trophic Ecology

Logan

Albert

Increased anthropogenic carbon flux with landuse development

Agriculture Urban Run-‐off

Aquaculture

STP discharge

CSIRO. Fish-‐ecosystem

Food Web of the Logan-‐Albert Estuary

Bull shark

Mullet

Diatoms

WhiCng

Oithona

Detritus Benthos

Bony herring

Phytoplankton

Ambassis

Euaugap2lis

Prawns

Yellowfin bream

Zooplankton

Prawns

Catchment C-‐subsidy

Bull shark

Mulloway

Ciliates ??

§ Sontek Argonaut velocity, discharge, depth § YSI 6600-‐ pH, EC, Temp, DO Chlorophyll, Phycocyanin, Turbidity § Gill Windsonic -‐Wind speed, dir § Wetlabs Ecotriplet-‐ CDOM, suspended sediment, § SatlanCc SUNA-‐ Nitrate, Cycle -‐phosphate § Contros pCO2 & methane

InstrumentaCon

Sony Web Camera

Windsonic – Wind Speed and DirecCon

Seeing Coastal Water Quality in real 4me terninstruments.csiro.au/maps.html

Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (pCO2) Patterns

•  Higher pCO2 upstream and following floods

•  Efflux and uptake •  Spatial and tidal variation

in pCO2 and CH4

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

27/07/2012 7:12:00 27/07/2012 9:36:00 27/07/2012 12:00:00 27/07/2012 14:24:00 27/07/2012 16:48:000

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

pCO2 µatmTide mCH4 µmol/L

DOC=S relationship. Logan July 2011

y = -0.9855Ln(x) + 4.2527R2 = 0.8668

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

salinity

DO

C (

mg

/L)

Dissolved Organic Carbon Patterns CDOM and DOM decreases with salinity

Tidal variation in CDOM and Nitrate

POM sources vary along estuary -‐effects of landuse

Different Landuse contribuCons-‐ Isosource frequency plots of soil sources

contribuCng to sediment OC using CSA

Lower Logan

Proportion (%)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Freq

uenc

y

0

20

40

60

80

Channel Bank Cultivated Forest Pasture Subsoils (cks)

n = 189

Bulk 13CC14:0i15:0C16:iw7C18:0

Lower Logan-‐Channel bank dominated Albert –Forest dominated

Isotopic Changes in trophic ecology

Bony Bream Phytoplankton

Mean Trophic Carbon fluxes

1

10

100

1000

10000

Car

bon

Flux

(mg

C m

-3 y

r-1)

The Pylon

8

565

75006700

Fish/Phyt=0.001 (<0.010)Cop/Phyt= 0.08 (<0.10)Cil/Phyt= 1.12 (>>0.10)

1

10

100

1000

10000

Fish

Cop

epod

s

Phyt

opla

nkto

n

Cili

ates

Skinner's Park

20

570

12780 8064

1

10

100

1000

10000

10

935

1842040000

Upper Albert



Further InformaCon Contact Details:

Andy Steven [email protected] or 0422 002 116

Access Informa4on: Australian Coastal Ecosystem Facility:

h<p://acef.tern.org.au/ Logan Data:

h<p://terninstruments.csiro.au/maps.html

Thanks to: •  Chris Lane (CoastalCOM) •  Roger Proctor (IMOS, UTas) •  Tim Moltmann (IMOS) •  Toni Cannard (CSIRO)

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