Carbon Sequestration Service of a Ramsar Site: A Conservation-Role Model for Defying Developmental Pressure in the Middle of a Rapidly Expanding City

Abdullah Sulaiman Al-Nadabi,Hameed Sulaiman

doi:10.4236/ojf.2021.114023

Abstract

Mangroves in coastal cities are under threat due to development pressures. However, mangrove ecosystems can serve as a potential carbon sink for mitigating the impacts of climate change. The main objective of this study was to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of mangroves in the Al-Qurm natural reserve, Muscat, Oman. The reserve was classified into three distinct zones and was estimated through field measurement and remote sensing techniques. The study found that each zone sequesters varying levels of carbon. The highest mean carbon stock was measured in the landward zone (20.2 ± 0.3 kg&#8729C/m2), followed by the middle zone (8.7 ± 0.4 kg&#8729C/m2) and seaward zone (5.8 ± 0.8 kg&#8729C/m2), respectively. The carbon sequestration rate of the sediment range was between 5.0 g C/m2&#8729year - 12.5 g C/m2&#8729year. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) derived from above-ground biomass showed a positive relationship (r = 0.73) with biomass measured in the field. However, the average above-ground carbon was underestimated (6.3 kg&#8729C/m2) than the above-ground field measurement (7.0 kg&#8729C/m2). This 0.82 km2 of the natural reserve was estimated to sequester approximately 9512 tonnes of carbon equivalent to 0.035 Mt of CO2e. This highlights the importance of conserving this natural reserve, despite a growing demand for land use in and around the reserve for development needs.

Highlights

The lowest was recorded in the seaward plot, which had the lowest biomass. These results demonstrate that biomass of mangroves is correlated with the amount of sediment organic carbon (SOC) in these habitats
The landward zone has the highest value of above-ground, and below-ground carbon since more mature trees with a high circumference is found in this zone despite lower tree density
There was a strong relationship between above-ground carbon and below-ground carbon

Summary

Introduction

Mangroves can assist to remedy carbon dioxide emissions from accelerated residential, industrial, commercial land uses in urban development by sequestrating and storing carbon for long periods (Fan et al, 2020; Friess et al, 2015). They can store large amounts of carbon per unit area (Kandasamy et al, 2021; Njana et al, 2015), with the capacity to sink carbon 3 to fivefold compared to terrestrial forests (Alavaisha & Mangora, 2016; Tue et al, 2014). Mangrove forests have been identified as an essential sink in climate change mitigation strategies

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