OOS 86

Coastal Wetlands in a Changing World: Drivers of Carbon Storage and Loss

Coastal ecosystems are under extreme direct and indirect pressure from various global environmental change drivers. Resilience to rapid changes along coastlines depends largely on net ecosystem exchange of carbon (C), which is affected by global and local anthropogenic ecosystem alteration. Coastal forests and marshes are characterized by high net ecosystem production, making these ecosystems a global conservation priority for C storage. Coastal wetland ecosystems store a disproportionate amount of C, up to 50 times more than terrestrial forests per unit area, considering they account for less than 1% of earth’s land area. However, anthropogenic-mediated disturbances can drastically change natural C balances. The objective of this oral session is to bring together research from across multiple coastal wetland ecosystems to characterize the factors that most contribute to changes in C fluxes (storage and losses). We will address how changes in C storage and losses are driven by variation in 1) nutrient loading, 2) vegetation regime shifts, 3) sea level rise and its associated biogeochemical changes, and 4) freshwater availability. Understanding how the magnitude and variance in these drivers influence ecosystem-level C processes is critical given imminent sea level rise.