Bavina Sookdeo writes about research on mangroves and mangrove lands in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname to protect our ecosystems, now facing climate change. For the full article, visit T&T Guardian.
Nature has unique, almost mystical ways of healing and preserving itself. For millions of years, nature’s delicate balance has been maintained by multiple natural processes that keep our ecosystems in an intricate but fragile dance with each other. Of course, human involvement and change have displaced these processes.
[. . .] Mangroves are one of the most useful tools of the earth.
Tall buttress roots, an incredible array of biodiversity and dense networks of stunning branches and roots that protect us from the worst effects of storms… our mangroves are monuments of earth design. A team from the Institute of Marine Affairs explained why in their quest to improve climate change mitigation strategies, they are taking their research underground, deep into the mangrove lands.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to climate change. We need to investigate all possibilities and that means not only finding ways to reduce emissions, but also exploring methods to remove and keep carbon out of the atmosphere. Finding creative strategies to combat climate change means studying and harnessing the full potential of solutions already existing in our natural environment. One of these is Biological Carbon Sequestration. Hamish Asmath, GIS Officer at the Institute of Marine Affairs explained, “As trees grow, they absorb carbon from the atmosphere. They incorporate this into their leaves and woody tissue. When all this organic matter decays or dies, it falls to the surface of the mangrove soils. All buttress roots capture that carbon and don’t allow it to dissipate. There is a very fine matrix of roots – very fibrous roots – which help to hold all this organic matter and carbon in the soil and that carbon decomposes in the soil. As organic matter decomposes, carbon is incorporated into the soil. In addition, because they exist in estuarine environments, which are very high in silt and clay, carbon is easily sequestered.
This research is part of the Mangrove Soil Carbon Assessment Project. This is a regional project involving T&T, Guyana and Suriname funded by the British High Commission which will give us the first measurements of mangrove soil carbon for these countries involved. Carbon dioxide is one of the main drivers of climate change, and mangrove soils actually store four to 20 times more carbon than the trees above them. In fact, mangrove lands [. . .] store many times the amount of carbon as regular forests. Asmath further elaborated on the research process, “What we’re working on is trying to find the best location where we can get a soil core. We have to go down at least one meter in depth,” he said. “When we return from the field, we take the wet weight of the samples. Then they are placed in an oven at 60 degrees Celsius for three to five days. At that point they are dried completely and thoroughly and then we get the dry weight. The dry weight and the volume of the sample are used to calculate the bulk density which is an essential component when we are calculating the total amount of carbon in mangrove soils. When we multiply the density of mass by percent carbon, we get the total amount of carbon in that sample. These carbon profiles for the different soil samples are used to calculate the total carbon stored in each study area. The research is robust and they are testing the effects of parameters different in stored carbon. They test sites with red mangroves versus black mangroves versus replanted sites and many others.
How is this research useful in fighting and understanding climate change? Dr Rahanna Juman, Director (Ag.) of IMA and wetlands expert explained the importance of the research: “The importance of the study is to understand how much carbon is stored and this helps in understanding how we can use this information, how we can monetize this information. There are initiatives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – we talked about REDD+ which is Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries and mangroves will be included in this project and seeing an initiative like this where we can realistically receive payments to maintain our mangrove forest in a relatively pristine state or to rehabilitate degraded ecosystems so that they continue to store carbon.Caribbean countries can also eventually participate in carbon trading markets. carbon, which are relatively new markets and they are still working out the mechanism by which carbon will be monetized, but having t hard data on the amount of carbon that is actually stored in our mangrove forest – both in biomass and in sediment, we are somewhat proactive and expect that when the opportunity comes, we can engage in carbon trading in these international markets and this will help us to save our mangrove forest. “
It doesn’t just end in helping direct conservation efforts and being proactive about future opportunities, Dr Juman also said that this data, which will be publicly available, can be used by current net-emitting companies considering restoration of mangroves to offset some emissions and from the policy. recipients to support evidence-based decision making. [. . .] While this research was carried out by the IMA, it is taking place in collaboration with other Caribbean researchers, universities and government bodies and was funded by the British High Commission. Her Excellency Harriet Cross, British High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago spoke of the value of working together to facilitate projects like these, “The reason is simple and the science is clear,” she said, “climate change is a threat deadly to humanity We must urgently step up action to have a chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
T&T is a small island developing nation; The UK recognizes how devastating climate change can be for this country, which is why over the past five years we have worked closely with partners in government, business, academia, civil society to raise a major environmental priority .” Her Excellency continued, “Our recent project with the Institute of Marine Affairs built on work done with Professor John Agard and the University of the West Indies on carbon sequestration in mangroves, this latest project shows the importance of the insurance we are gathering the right data to make informed choices Information on carbon sequestered in aboveground and belowground mangrove soils will be important as Trinidad and Tobago works to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and deliver on commitments to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Projects like this help us be ambitious, meet the Paris Agreement Goals, support stronger national action and stronger international cooperation, all of which are needed to tackle climate change and to protect current and future generations.”
Our mangroves are truly incredible. They are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth, but in our region until recently, they are also one of the least studied and least understood. Thanks to the researchers at IMA and their collaborators and their literally groundbreaking research, we are finally beginning to understand the true value these amazing forests hold.
To learn more about this project and other environmental initiatives from the Ministry of Planning and Development and IMA, follow us on social media @planningtt and @imagovtt.
For the original article, visit https://www.guardian.co.tt/article/mission-mangrove–a-blue-carbon-initiative-6.2.1450421.a61bc32d0c
