Carbon Cycling in Coastal Wetlands

 

Presenters:

Dr. Anne Giblin, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) Senior Scientist - Rising Seas and the Fate of Coastal Salt Marshes

 

Dr. Meagan Eagle Gonneea, U.S. Geological Survey Research Scientist - Blue Carbon in Our Backyard: Coastal Wetlands, Climate, Management, and Markets

 

Date: October 2019

 

Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities

• Bringing Wetlands to Market:  WBNERR and NOAA STEM Curriculum Linking Wetlands to Sea Level Rise and explaining the value of salt marshes http://waquoitbayreserve.org/education-programs/teacher-training/
• Data Nuggets:  These activities were developed by teachers and scientists working together to bring real data from current and ongoing research into the classroom.   http://datanuggets.org/
  • Within those are a number that directly address sea level rise and marshes and/or talk about Phragmites:
    • Keeping up with sea level  http://datanuggets.org/2016/03/keeping-up-with-the-sea-level/
    • Is your marsh in the zone  http://datanuggets.org/2015/10/is-your-salt-marsh-in-the-zone/
    • Invasive reeds   http://datanuggets.org/2015/05/invasive-reeds-in-the-salt-marsh/
    • Salt marsh response to restoration  http://datanuggets.org/2015/08/can-a-salt-marsh-recover-after-restoration/
    • The salt marsh sparrow and sea level rise  http://datanuggets.org/2016/03/does-sea-level-rise-harm-saltmarsh-sparrows/
• Salt marsh science curriculum (developed by classroom teachers and MA Audubon): This curriculum is for middle school and high school students and has classroom activities, identification sheets and a dichotomous key for identifying salt marsh plants, and data sheets for salt marsh field trips.  https://pie-lter.ecosystems.mbl.edu/content/salt-marsh-science-curriculum
• Where rivers meet the sea:  This lesson, developed by the NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System, helps students answer the question, “What are estuaries?”   https://coast.noaa.gov/estuaries/curriculum/where-rivers-meet-the-sea.html
• What's Causing Sea-Level Rise? Land ice vs. sea ice activity: This NASA/JPL-Caltech activity helps students understand land ice vs. sea ice and their impacts on sea level rise.  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/whats-causing-sea-level-rise-land-ice-vs-sea-ice/
• Graphing Sea-Level Trends: In this NASA/JPL-Caltech activity, students will use sea-level rise data to create models and compare short-term trends to long-term trends.  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/graphing-sea-level-trends/
• Thermal Expansion Model: In this NASA/JPL-Caltech activity, students will build a model using everyday items to demonstrate that water expands when heat energy is added.  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/thermal-expansion-model/
• Sea Level Rise: This learning module, developed by NASA and NOAA, has instruction and activities centered on a 23 minute video about sea level rise, its causes, and impacts.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/sea-level-rise/welcome.html
• NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System Estuary Education Resources  https://coast.noaa.gov/estuaries/curriculum/

 

Background and Resources

• Bringing Wetlands to Market website about the blue carbon research taking place at South Cape Beach in Mashpee (part of Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and other places on Cape Cod and beyond).  http://waquoitbayreserve.org/research-monitoring/salt-marsh-carbon-project/
• Carbon cycle resources at WHOI  https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-chemistry/carbon-cycle/
• “More floods & higher sea level.”  2017. Oceanus magazine article.  https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/more-floods-and-faster-rising-sea-levels/
• Is sea level rising?  This NOAA National Ocean Service site does a good job of explaining the difference between global and local sea level as well as sea level rise.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sealevel.html
• Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research Station website  https://pie-lter.ecosystems.mbl.edu/welcome-plum-island-ecosystems-lter
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports. This is the UN group that assesses the science related to climate change.  Technical Summary, Summary for Policy Makers,  https://www.ipcc.ch/
• Spivak, A.C., Sanderman, J., Bowen, J.L., Canuel, E.A., Hopkinson, C.S. 2019.  Global-change controls on soil-carbon accumulation and loss in coastal vegetated ecosystems. 12: 685-692.
• Morris, J.T., K. Sundberg, and C.S. Hopkinson. 2013. Salt marsh primary production and its responses to relative sea level and nutrients in estuaries at Plum Island, Massachusetts, and North Inlet, South Carolina, USA. Oceanography 26(3): 78-84, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2013.48.
• MBL Senior Scientist, Anne Giblin’s webpage  https://www.mbl.edu/ecosystems/faculty/giblin/
• USGS Research Scientist, Meagan Eagle Gonneea’s webpage  https://www.usgs.gov/staff-profiles/meagan-eagle-gonneea?qt-staff_profile_science_products=0#qt-staff_profile_science_products
• Videos -
  • This video gives a comprehensive overview of blue carbon and how wetlands, with a focus on the herring river, can be used in carbon storage.  It offers a nice overview for both teachers and students.    https://howwerespond.aaas.org/community-spotlight/herring-river-illustrates-the-value-of-wetlands-in-reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions/
  • How has salt marsh draining, diking, and other management decisions changed the ability of coastal marshes to store carbon and protect against sea level rise?  https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/managing-marshes-mosquitoes-sea-level-rise/

 

Deeper Exploration:  Meagan Eagle Gonneea and Anne Giblin/ Papers in Scientific Journals

• Forbrich, I., Giblin, A.E., Hopkinson, C.S., 2018.  Forbrich, I., Giblin, A.E., Hopkinson, C.S., 2018. Constraining marsh carbon budgets using long-term C burial and contemporary atmospheric CO2 fluxes. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences. 123: 867-878. 123: 867-878.
• Gonneea, M.E., Maio, C.V., Kroeger, K.D., Hawkes, A.D., Mora, J., Sullivan, R., Madsen, S., Buzard, R.M., Cahill, N., Donnelly, J.P.  2019.  Salt marsh ecosystem restructuring enhances elevation resilience and carbon storage during accelerating relative sea-level rise.  Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.  217: 56-68.