VARIABILITY OF CARBON BURIAL AND STORAGE IN SALT MARSH SEDIMENTS UNDER INFLUENCES OF HUMAN AND NATURAL DISTURBANCES ACROSS SPATIOTEMPORAL SCALES

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  • Arriola, Jill Marie
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Marine Sciences
Abstract
  • Salt marshes play an important role in the global carbon cycle as reservoirs of atmospheric CO2 and are estimated to bury carbon at rates ranging between 18 to 1713 g OC m-2 yr-1. Defining the long-term potential and capacity of salt marshes to store CO2 has become increasingly important as policy makers require more accurate estimates to implement climate change mitigation strategies while also assessing the total value of conserving these environments. Along with the growing need to improve the accuracy of carbon burial and storage estimates in salt marsh sediments, understanding how these carbon reservoirs may be altered in the face of increasing human and natural disturbances is also critically important. Salt marshes are influenced by direct and indirect physical human activities, such as increased sedimentation from upland deforestation, and the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels, which can result in enhancement or reduction of sediment carbon storage. Refining the role of salt marshes in the global carbon cycle requires further understanding of the spatiotemporal variability of carbon stored in salt marsh sediments across scales, how the use of different methods may skew our assessment of these carbon pools, and how salt marsh carbon burial and storage is influenced by a range of disturbances. The goal of this dissertation is to enhance understanding of variability in organic carbon burial and storage in salt marsh sediments across spatiotemporal scales over differing degrees of disturbances using consistent methods. Chapters 2 and 3 investigate spatiotemporal variability of carbon storage in salt marshes along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico within different marsh maturation stages and geomorphology across study sites of similar latitudes. Chapter 4 examines how human-induced changes in sediment delivery influence carbon burial in the abandoned and active lobes of the Yellow River delta, China. Chapter 5 identifies the impacts of Hurricane Harvey on carbon quality and quantity in Texas marsh sediments. The results of this dissertation research will help further our understanding of salt marsh carbon storage resiliency to external disturbances while refining the role salt marshes play in the global carbon cycle.
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Advisor
  • Cable, Jaye E
  • Canuel, Elizabeth A
  • Corbett, David R
  • Martens, Christopher S
  • McKee, Brent A
Degree
  • Doctor of Philosophy
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2020
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