Carbon stock variability of Setiu Lagoon mangroves and its relation to the environmental parameters

Abstract

Mangroves are well known for their ability to sequester and store a large amount of carbon within their plant parts and sediment. This characteristic is termed as blue carbon and important to combat the global warming through carbon sink and carbon storage. Studies on blue carbon are vast globally however the environmental parameters that regulated the mangrove carbon stock remain limited and require urgent investigation to understand the factors controlling the ecosystem’s blue carbon projection. Therefore, this study was conducted to quantify both the above and belowground mangrove carbon stocks and the carbon stocks relation to physical parameters in Setiu Lagoon, Terengganu. The value was 90.92 t C ha−1 and 25.30 t C ha−1, respectively. Rhizophora apiculata was with the highest aboveground carbon stock with storage capacity of 48.91 t c ha−1. In terms of diameter at breast height class size, Class 2 (10.1–20.0 cm) was the highest with 43.49 t C ha−1. For belowground carbon stock, coarse roots had the highest value with 12.70 ± 2.84 t C ha−1, followed by fine roots with 9.81 ± 1.97 t C ha−1, and dead roots with 3.06 ± 1.12 t C ha−1 and had significant differences (p < 0.05). Layer 41–50 cm in Setiu Lagoon had the highest belowground carbon stock with 7.13 ± 0.47 t C ha−1. Soil pore-water pH showed to significantly positively correlated with the belowground stock at R2 = 0.35, p < 0.05. As conclusion, our study contributes to the mangrove carbon stock of lagoon mangrove forest and highlight the importance of pH as a crucial parameter in future carbon stock study particularly for tropical mangrove forest.

Keywords

• Blue carbon
• Above and belowground biomass
• Lagoon mangrove
• Soil pH
• Salinity