DESERT MANGROVES ARE MAJOR SOURCE OF CARBON STORAGE

Researchers found that short, stunted mangroves living along the coastal desert of Baja California store up to five times more carbon below ground than their lush, tropical counterparts. The new study led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in UC San Diego estimates that coastal desert mangroves, which only account for one percent of the land area, store nearly 30 percent of the region's belowground carbon.

"Mangroves represent a thin layer between ocean and land, and yet we are seeing an ecosystem that is storing a lot of carbon in a very small area," said Paula Ezcurra, lead author of the study.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was the first to estimate carbon accumulated in the mangrove's sediment peat layer, and highlights the importance of better understanding the natural history conditions where mangroves live to more accurately estimate their global carbon storage capacity.

Thanks to: sciencedaily.com