A Tidal Flat Adjacent to a Fringe Mangrove Forest Mitigates p CO 2 Increases and Enhances Lateral Export of Dissolved Carbon.

Carbon export from mangrove forests to the oceans partly acts as a sink for atmospheric CO₂, exceeding the rate of carbon burial in mangrove soils. Primary production in ecosystems adjacent to mangroves may prevent degassing and enhance further carbon export from mangroves to the oceans. In this study, we continuously monitored carbonate chemistry parameters (pCO₂, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total alkalinity (TA)) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in a tidal flat adjacent to a fringe mangrove forest over a spring-neap tidal cycle. Mean pCO₂ during the entire period was 923 ± 318 μatm, and the export of TA, DIC, and DOC from the mangroves to the ocean was 36 ± 26 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹, 42 ± 39 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹, and 10 ± 9 mmol m⁻² d⁻¹, respectively. Semi-monthly pCO₂ variations in the mangrove front were controlled by the tidal level during spring tide and by photosynthesis and respiration on the tidal flat during neap tide. This means that during neap tide, photosynthesis on the tidal flat offset the increase in pCO₂ caused by the porewater export from the mangrove soil. The DIC/TA export ratio in this study was 1.17 ± 0.08, which was lower than the global average of 1.41 ± 1.39, indicating that the tidal flat adjacent to the mangrove forest may act as a buffer zone to mitigate the increase in pCO₂, resulting in much of the exported DIC being stored in the ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]