Global dataset of soil organic carbon in tidal marshes
Tania L. Maxwell, André Rovai, María Fernanda Adame, Janine B. Adams, José Álvarez-Rogel, William E. N. Austin, Kim Beasy, Francesco Boscutti, Michael E. Böttcher, Tjeerd J. Bouma, R.H. Bulmer, Annette Burden, Shannon Burke, Saritta Camacho, Doongar R. Chaudhary, Gail L. Chmura, Margareth Copertino, Grace M. Cott, Christopher Craft, John W. Day, Carmen B. de los Santos, Lionel Denis, Weixin Ding, JC Ellison, Carolyn J. Ewers Lewis, Luise Giani, María Gispert, Swanne Gontharet, José Antonío González‐Pérez, María Nazaret González-Alcaraz, Connor Gorham, Anna Elizabeth Løvgren Graversen, Anthony Grey, Roberta Guerra, Qiang He, James R. Holmquist, Alice R. Jones, José A. Juanes, Brian P. Kelleher, Karen E. Kohfeld, Dorte Krause‐Jensen, Anna Lafratta, Paul S. Lavery, Edward A. Laws, Carmen Leiva‐Dueñas, Pei Sun Loh, Catherine E. Lovelock, Carolyn J. Lundquist, Peter I. Macreadie, Inés Mazarrasa, J. Patrick Megonigal, João M. Neto, Juliana Nogueira, Michael J. Osland, Jordi F. Pagès, Nipuni Perera, Eva‐Maria Pfeiffer, Thomas Pollmann, Jacqueline L. Raw, María Recio, Ana Carolina Ruíz-Fernández, Sophie K. Russell, John Rybczyk, Marek Sammul, Christian J. Sanders, Rui Santos, Óscar Serrano, Matthias Siewert, Craig Smeaton, Zhaoliang Song, Carmen Trasar-Cepeda, Robert R. Twilley, Marijn Van de Broek, Stefano Vitti, Livia Vittori Antisari, Baptiste Voltz, Christy N. Wails, Raymond D. Ward, Melissa Ward, J. L. Wolfe, Ren‐Min Yang, Sebastian Zubrzycki, Emily Landis, Lindsey S. Smart, Mark Spalding, Thomas A. Worthington
Abstract
Abstract Tidal marshes store large amounts of organic carbon in their soils. Field data quantifying soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks provide an important resource for researchers, natural resource managers, and policy-makers working towards the protection, restoration, and valuation of these ecosystems. We collated a global dataset of tidal marsh soil organic carbon (MarSOC) from 99 studies that includes location, soil depth, site name, dry bulk density, SOC, and/or soil organic matter (SOM). The MarSOC dataset includes 17,454 data points from 2,329 unique locations, and 29 countries. We generated a general transfer function for the conversion of SOM to SOC. Using this data we estimated a median (± median absolute deviation) value of 79.2 ± 38.1 Mg SOC ha −1 in the top 30 cm and 231 ± 134 Mg SOC ha −1 in the top 1 m of tidal marsh soils globally. This data can serve as a basis for future work, and may contribute to incorporation of tidal marsh ecosystems into climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and policies.