Lamont, K.,
Saintilan, N.,
Kelleway, J.J.,
Mazumder, D.
and Zawadzki, A.
2020
Thirty-year repeat measures
of mangrove above- and
below-ground biomass
reveals unexpectedly
high carbon sequestration.
Ecosystems 23: 370-382
NOTE:
Climate alarmists
have used
computer models
to claim that rising CO2
and rising temperatures
will be bad news,
even for forests.
Is anything evident
in observational data ?
Lamont et al. (2020)
answered this question
for a mangrove forest
ecosystem in
New South Wales,
Australia.
SUMMARY:
There were incredible
growth benefits for
mangrove forest
ecosystems
during decades of rising
atmospheric CO2 and
rising temperature.
Results included
large gains in
aboveground and
below ground
biomass,
between the
two survey dates,
at both mangrove
forest sites.
"A greater than
seven-fold increase
in mean aboveground
biomass"
at Site 2, and
"a six-fold and
12-fold increase
[in total below-ground
root mass]
at Site 1 and Site 2,
respectively."
Such large
biomass increases
were estimated
to have contributed
to large gains in
carbon sequestration.
Extrapolating such gains
to the entire New South
Wales region, they estimate
mangrove forests have
sequestered
"at least about 1.8 Tg C"
over the past 70 years.
DETAILS:
The five Australian
researchers examined
the biomass change
of two mangrove
forest sites
over the period
1989-2018.
The two sites included
a tall gallery forest
composed of Avicennia
marina
(i.e., Site 1)
and an interior,
higher elevation,
stunted mixed community
of A. marina and
Aegiceras corniculatum
(i.e., Site 2).
Data originally gathered
in a 1989 survey
were compared with
new data obtained
by Lamont et al. in 2018,
and thereafter analyzed
for possible trends.
CHART BELOW:
Mean aboveground biomass
(upper panels)
and dry root mass
(lower panels)
of Avicennia marina
(blue shading)
and Aegiceras
corniculatum
(green shading).
At a tall gallery forest
(Site 1)
and an interior,
higher elevation,
stunted mixed
community forest
(Site 2)
in New South Wales,
Australia, in 1989
and 2018.
Error bars represent
one standard error.
