Blue Carbon Ecosystems and Their Role in Climate Change Mitigation—An Overview

Blue carbon ecosystems include mangroves and other tidal wetlands such as seagrasses and salt marshes. Coastal blue carbon is thought to provide climate change mitigation benefits in view of their ability to store carbon under adverse conditions and this in the recent times has garnered the attention of the scientific community at large. Mangroves are one of the most productive ecosystems and their carbon storage potential is much greater as compared to sea grasses and salt marshes. Mangroves sequester carbon in their living biomass as well as the sediments. The tropical Asian mangroves show the greatest mangrove diversity and the highest biomass accumulation. But, the carbon storage potential of their living biomass is outcompeted by their sedimentary carbon storage. Mangrove sediments play a special and quantitatively important role in carbon storage than previously thought. They store both autochthonous and allochthonous organic matter due to their strategic location at the interface between land and sea and prevailing reducing conditions.

Indian mangrove ecosystems which also comprises one of the largest mangrove forest of the world may offer a possible opportunity for the development of blue carbon market economy. But there exist a large number of gaps in the available blue carbon literature. The available studies largely focus on the living biomass storage and sedimentary storage is un-surveyed. Mangrove research in India have shown significant growth in the past few decades but the targeted approach towards delineating the ecosystems’ carbon stocks and the factors controlling them are still lacking. The need of the hour is to correctly map and document the mangroves in India for their carbon storage in order to build a better and reliable picture of the role of these ecosystems in climate change mitigation.