Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords

Global warming is causing significant losses of marine ice around the polar regions. In Antarctica, the retreat of tidewater glaciers is opening up novel, low-energy habitats (fjords) that have the potential to provide a negative feedback loop to climate change. These fjords are being colonized by o...

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Published in:Global Change Biology
Main Authors: Zwerschke, Nadescha, Sands, Chester J., Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro, Barnes, David K.A., Guzzi, Alice, Jenkins, Stuart, Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos, Scourse, James
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/1/gcb.15898.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15898
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spelling ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:531030 2023-05-15T13:41:46+02:00 Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords Zwerschke, Nadescha Sands, Chester J. Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro Barnes, David K.A. Guzzi, Alice Jenkins, Stuart Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos Scourse, James 2022-01 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/1/gcb.15898.pdf https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15898 en eng Wiley https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/1/gcb.15898.pdf Zwerschke, Nadescha orcid:0000-0003-4099-8269 Sands, Chester J. orcid:0000-0003-1028-0328 Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro; Barnes, David K.A. orcid:0000-0002-9076-7867 Guzzi, Alice; Jenkins, Stuart; Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos; Scourse, James. 2022 Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords. Global Change Biology, 28 (1). 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898 <https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898 2023-02-04T19:52:32Z Global warming is causing significant losses of marine ice around the polar regions. In Antarctica, the retreat of tidewater glaciers is opening up novel, low-energy habitats (fjords) that have the potential to provide a negative feedback loop to climate change. These fjords are being colonized by organisms on and within the sediment and act as a sink for particulate matter. So far, blue carbon potential in Antarctic habitats has mainly been estimated using epifaunal megazoobenthos (although some studies have also considered macrozoobenthos). We investigated two further pathways of carbon storage and potential sequestration by measuring the concentration of carbon of infaunal macrozoobenthos and total organic carbon (TOC) deposited in the sediment. We took samples along a temporal gradient since time of last glacier ice cover (1–1000 years) at three fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula. We tested the hypothesis that seabed carbon standing stock would be mainly driven by time since last glacier covered. However, results showed this to be much more complex. Infauna were highly variable over this temporal gradient and showed similar total mass of carbon standing stock per m2 as literature estimates of Antarctic epifauna. TOC mass in the sediment, however, was an order of magnitude greater than stocks of infaunal and epifaunal carbon and increased with time since last ice cover. Thus, blue carbon stocks and recent gains around Antarctica are likely much higher than previously estimated as is their negative feedback on climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Tidewater Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Global Change Biology 28 1 8 20
institution Open Polar
collection Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive
op_collection_id ftnerc
language English
description Global warming is causing significant losses of marine ice around the polar regions. In Antarctica, the retreat of tidewater glaciers is opening up novel, low-energy habitats (fjords) that have the potential to provide a negative feedback loop to climate change. These fjords are being colonized by organisms on and within the sediment and act as a sink for particulate matter. So far, blue carbon potential in Antarctic habitats has mainly been estimated using epifaunal megazoobenthos (although some studies have also considered macrozoobenthos). We investigated two further pathways of carbon storage and potential sequestration by measuring the concentration of carbon of infaunal macrozoobenthos and total organic carbon (TOC) deposited in the sediment. We took samples along a temporal gradient since time of last glacier ice cover (1–1000 years) at three fjords along the West Antarctic Peninsula. We tested the hypothesis that seabed carbon standing stock would be mainly driven by time since last glacier covered. However, results showed this to be much more complex. Infauna were highly variable over this temporal gradient and showed similar total mass of carbon standing stock per m2 as literature estimates of Antarctic epifauna. TOC mass in the sediment, however, was an order of magnitude greater than stocks of infaunal and epifaunal carbon and increased with time since last ice cover. Thus, blue carbon stocks and recent gains around Antarctica are likely much higher than previously estimated as is their negative feedback on climate change.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Zwerschke, Nadescha
Sands, Chester J.
Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro
Barnes, David K.A.
Guzzi, Alice
Jenkins, Stuart
Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos
Scourse, James
spellingShingle Zwerschke, Nadescha
Sands, Chester J.
Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro
Barnes, David K.A.
Guzzi, Alice
Jenkins, Stuart
Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos
Scourse, James
Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
author_facet Zwerschke, Nadescha
Sands, Chester J.
Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro
Barnes, David K.A.
Guzzi, Alice
Jenkins, Stuart
Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos
Scourse, James
author_sort Zwerschke, Nadescha
title Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
title_short Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
title_full Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
title_fullStr Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
title_full_unstemmed Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords
title_sort quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in west antarctic fjords
publisher Wiley
publishDate 2022
url http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/1/gcb.15898.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15898
geographic Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
geographic_facet Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctica
Tidewater
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctica
Tidewater
op_relation https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531030/1/gcb.15898.pdf
Zwerschke, Nadescha orcid:0000-0003-4099-8269
Sands, Chester J. orcid:0000-0003-1028-0328
Roman-Gonzalez, Alejandro; Barnes, David K.A. orcid:0000-0002-9076-7867
Guzzi, Alice; Jenkins, Stuart; Muñoz-Ramírez, Carlos; Scourse, James. 2022 Quantification of blue carbon pathways contributing to negative feedback on climate change following glacier retreat in West Antarctic fjords. Global Change Biology, 28 (1). 8-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898 <https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898>
op_rights cc_by_4
op_rightsnorm CC-BY
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15898
container_title Global Change Biology
container_volume 28
container_issue 1
container_start_page 8
op_container_end_page 20
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