ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung

Summary

Teal and blue carbon ecosystems act as important carbon sinks by capturing and storing atmospheric CO2 in their biomass and sediments. Accordingly, these ecosystems support biodiversity, climate change mitigation and ecosystem resilience. However, little is known on the biogeochemical processes and carbon storage in the transition from freshwater to brackish water wetlands.

This project will analyse sediment cores from freshwater and mangrove wetlands in the Madu Ganga Lagoon in western Sri Lanka for their biogeochemical composition and calculate carbon stocks. It will provide a history of carbon storage in wetland sediments from the late Holocene until today.

Project goals

• To investigate the link and transition between teal carbon and blue carbon ecosystems.
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• To analyze the timing of the initial carbon sequestration during the late Holocene.
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To investigate  how variations in environmental and climatic conditions (e.g. rising sea level) affect the rate of carbon sequestration.