Nature – Valentine et al. (2023): Climate-driven tradeoffs between landscape connectivity and the maintenance of the coastal carbon sink

Kendall Valentine, Ellen R. Herbert, David C. Walters, Yaping Chen, Alexander J. Smith, Matthew L. Kirwan IN: Nat Commun 14, 113; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36803-7

The authors couple a spatially-explicit geomorphic model with a point-based carbon accumulation model, and show that landscape connectivity, in-situ carbon accumulation rates, and the size of the landscape-scale coastal carbon stock all peak at intermediate sea level rise rates despite divergent responses of individual components. Progressive loss of forest biomass under increasing sea level rise leads to a shift from a system dominated by forest biomass carbon towards one dominated by marsh soil carbon that is maintained by substantial recycling of organic carbon between marshes and bays.

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