Accumulation of carbonates contributes to coastal vegetated ecosystems keeping pace with sea level rise in an arid region (Arabian Peninsula)
Authors
Vincent Saderne
Michael Cusack
Hanan Almahasheer
Oscar Serrano, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Pere Masque´, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Ariane Arias‐Ortiz
Periyadan Kadinjappalli Krishnakumar
Lotfi Rabaoui
Mohammad Ali Qurban
Carlos Manuel Duarte
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Science
RAS ID
26884
Funders
Australian Research Council
Grant Number
ARC Number : DE170101524
Abstract
Anthropogenic sea level rise (SLR) presents one of the greatest risks to human lives and infrastructures. Coastal vegetated ecosystems, that is, tidal marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests, elevate the seabed through soil accretion, providing a natural coastline protection against SLR. The soil accretion of these ecosystems has never been assessed in hot desert climate regions, where water runoff is negligible. However, tropical marine ecosystems are areas of intense calcification that may constitute an important source of sediment supporting seabed elevation, compensating for the lack of terrestrial inputs. We estimated the long‐term (14C‐centennial) and short‐term (210Pb‐20th century) soil accretion rates (SARs) and inorganic carbon (Cinorg) burial in coastal vegetated ecosystems of the Saudi coasts of the central Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. Short‐term SARs (±SE) in mangroves of the Red Sea (0.27 ± 0.22 cm/year) were twofold the SLR for that region since 1925 (0.13 cm/year). In the Arabian Gulf, only mangrove forest SAR is equivalent to local SLR estimates for the period 1979–2007 (0.21 ± 0.09 compared to 0.22 ± 0.05 cm/year, respectively). Long‐term SARs are comparable or higher than the global estimates of SLR for the late Holocene (0.01 cm/year). In all habitats of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, SARs are supported by high carbonate accretion rates, comprising 40% to 60% of the soil volume. Further studies on the role of carbonates in coastal vegetated ecosystems are required to understand their role in adaptation to SLR.
DOI
10.1029/2017JG004288
Access Rights
subscription content
Comments
Saderne, V., Cusack, M., Almahasheer, H., Serrano, O., Masqué, P., Arias‐Ortiz, A., ... & Duarte, C. M. (2018). Accumulation of Carbonates Contributes to Coastal Vegetated Ecosystems Keeping Pace With Sea Level Rise in an Arid Region (Arabian Peninsula). Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 123(5), 1498-1510. Available here