Low Salt Marsh Habitats Release More Carbon in Response to Warming: Study

"This complicates their role as carbon sinks as temperatures, and the sea level rises."

"Salt marshes, excellent reservoirs of carbon, are living ecosystems with vegetation and microscopic organisms that live, breathe, poop and die in the marsh mud.

“This is a place where you could get the biggest bang for your buck, if you will, if you’re interested in trying to invest some resources in sequestering carbon using biological systems,” said Serena Moseman-Valtierra, an associate professor of biological science at the University of Rhode Island.

Yet as temperatures rise, marshes at the lowest elevations may also be significant emitters of carbon. This complicated relationship between temperature and respiration of carbon was measured in a new study from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts."

Hannah Loss reports for Inside Climate News January 9, 2023.

Source: Inside Climate News, 01/10/2023