Table 1.
Organic carbon (C) storage in Australian vegetated coastal ecosystems (i.e., tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrasses), per unit area (in Mg C ha−1 and Mg C ha−1 year-1) and Australia-wide (in Tg C)
| a | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Stock-aboveground biomass per unit area (Mg C ha−1) | Total area (Mha) | Stock-aboveground biomass (Tg C) | |||||
| N plots | Mean | Median | SD | Min | Max | Min | Max | |
| Tidal marsh | 52 | 7.5 | 6.4 | 6.1 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 2.6 |
| Mangrove | 37 | 125 | 94 | 90 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 50 | 158 |
| Seagrass | 52 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 9.3 | 12.8 | 16 | 22 |
| Total | 141 | 11.0 | 15.4 | 67 | 183 | |||
| b | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Stock-soil (Mg C ha−1 in 1 m-thick) | Total area (Mha) | Stock-soil (Tg C) | |||||
| N cores | Mean | Median | SD | Min | Max | Min | Max | |
| Tidal marsh | 292 | 168 | 140 | 127 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 210 | 234 |
| Mangrove | 262 | 251 | 238 | 155 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 81 | 257 |
| Seagrass | 549 | 112 | 85 | 88 | 9.3 | 12.8 | 762 | 1051 |
| Total | 1103 | 11.0 | 15.4 | 1053 | 1542 | |||
| c | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Sequestration rates-Soil (Mg C ha−1 year−1) | Total area (Mha) | Sequestration rates (Tg C year−1) | |||||
| N cores | Mean | Median | SD | Min | Max | Min | Max | |
| Tidal marsh | 292 | 0.39 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 0.48 | 0.54 |
| Mangrove | 24 | 1.26 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| Seagrass | 36 | 0.36 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 9.3 | 12.8 | 2.5 | 3.5 |
| Total | 352 | 11.0 | 15.4 | 3.5 | 5.5 | |||
Mean and median ± SD C stock in (a) living aboveground biomass and (b) in the top meter of soil
c: Soil C sequestration rates. Mha = 106 ha