Department or Program

Geology

Abstract

Conservation of natural carbon sinks is a powerful tool for climate change mitigation often overlooked by policymakers and landowners. Coastal marine habitats are significantly more efficient at capturing and storing carbon than terrestrial ecosystems, yet they face severe threat of destruction. Maine has at least 79km2 of tidal salt marsh, by far the most of any state in New England. In this study, carbon storage has been estimated for four salt marshes in central and southern Maine. Salt marsh peat, where most carbon is stored as “blue carbon”, ranges in depth from 0.2 m to 3.3 m. A carbon density range of 0.030 to 0.070 gC/cm3 was observed in saltmarsh peat. Studied marshes contained between 3.7 x 1010 +/- 0.925 x 1010 and 2.5 x 1011 +/- 0.6 x 1010 gC in the upper 1m of marsh sediment. Results from this study will hopefully facilitate further investigation of blue carbon in Maine, while encouraging the conservation of Maine’s extensive saltmarsh ecosystems.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Beverly Johnson

Date of Graduation

5-2013

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

87

Components of Thesis

1 pdf file

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