Donate

Mexican mangrove sinkholes a global hotspot for carbon storage

Publicly released:
Australia; QLD

New research has found the mangrove forest around natural sinkholes of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula represent one of the richest hotspots of stored carbon on Earth. Peat deposits up to 6m deep in these natural sinkholes - or cenotes - contained carbon levels as high as 2792 MgCha−1, the highest value recorded in mangroves, or terrestrial vegetation carbon sinks. This build-up of mangrove roots has been undisturbed for more than 3220 years, but threats from poorly-planned tourism, water extraction and pollution could cause massive emission.

Journal/
conference: Biology Letters
Research:Paper
Organisation/s: Griffith University
Funder: This research was funded by the Queensland Government through the Advance Queensland Fellowship granted to MFA and through a Cátedra Fellowship (project 236) from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) to N.S.S.
Media Contact/s
Contact details are only visible to registered journalists.

More News

9 hours ago

100 years of menus shows how food and diplomacy are linked

International Basque Culinary Center, Spain Frontiers in Political Science
17 hours ago

Tiny sea creatures spread around the world by ships

Australia; New Zealand; International Geomarine Research (NZ), PERM (Australia) Micropaelontology
a day ago

Bird flu may have halved the number of elephant seal mums on South Georgia

International British Antarctic Survey Communications Biology