{"id":191769,"date":"2025-12-04T09:47:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/?p=191769"},"modified":"2025-12-05T12:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T17:39:32","slug":"study-reveals-opportunity-to-improve-blue-carbon-measurements-in-coastal-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/news\/study-reveals-opportunity-to-improve-blue-carbon-measurements-in-coastal-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Study reveals opportunity to improve blue carbon measurements in coastal wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

URI professor co-leads research to re-examine how stored carbon is measured<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

December 4, 2025<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Coastal wetlands, like salt marshes, keep pace with sea-level rise by accumulating sediment and burying organic carbon in their soils, an important natural process that also helps sequester carbon. Accurately measuring this stored carbon is essential for understanding marsh resilience and informing blue carbon strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a new study led by Erin Peck<\/a>, an assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography<\/a>, and Serina Wittyngham<\/a>, an assistant professor at the University of North Florida, identifies a fundamental limitation in a widely-used method for measuring organic carbon in flooded coastal sediments. This gap has implications for global estimates of carbon storage and marsh resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A new study finds a critical limitation in a widely used method for measuring organic carbon in flooded coastal sediments, a gap that could influence global carbon storage estimates and assessments of marsh resilience. (URI Photo\/Courtesy Erin Peck)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Traditional blue carbon methods assume that all measured organic matter contributes to long-term carbon storage and sediment volume. The new study shows this isn\u2019t always the case. Some organic matter is dissolved in sediment porewater, while other portions adhere loosely to sediment particles or are bound within the internal structure of clay minerals. These forms of organic matter may not contribute to sediment volume, accretion, or marsh resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By examining more than 23,000 tidal marsh sediment samples across multiple marsh systems, Peck, Wittyngham, and their collaborators demonstrated that this overlooked fraction of \u201cvolumeless\u201d organic matter can lead to overestimates of both carbon storage and marsh elevation gains. Recognizing this nuance allows scientists to refine their estimates of carbon sequestration and resilience, ensuring that restoration planning, carbon accounting, and predictive modeling are based on the most accurate information possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers\u2019 findings were published recently in a peer-reviewed article in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Conceptual framework illustrating core components in (a) reality, (b) traditional calculations, and (c) the researchers updated calculations, which separate measured organic matter (LOI) from volumeless organic matter, composed of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThis discovery came out of a simple question,\u201d said Peck. \u201cSerina and I were working on a project, trying to convert different components of a sediment core from mass to volume, and became frustrated that we couldn\u2019t get the math to work out. Eventually, we realized that maybe we were missing something obvious\u2014that not all our masses contribute to volume.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started this \u2018thought experiment\u2019 by reflecting on sugar dissolved in water: you can dissolve a large mass of sugar without changing the volume of the water,\u201d Wittyngham said. \u201cThis same concept applies to dissolved organic matter in sediments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interdisciplinary collaboration        <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peck, a geologist, and Wittyngham, an ecologist, emphasized the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration while conducting their research, noting that working together helped them move beyond the standard methods typically used in their individual fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile writing about our research, we reviewed our calculations with modelers, biogeochemists, and a range of other researchers,\u201d said Wittyngham. \u201cThis issue could affect anyone working with blue carbon across ecosystems, and we wanted to make sure we fully understood its implications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refining blue carbon science<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The researchers hope their findings will serve as a starting point for broader collaboration within the blue carbon community. They aim to develop correction factors to adjust previous measurements for volumeless organic matter, addressing this methodological limitation while preserving the value of data already collected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peck and Wittyngham emphasized the importance of working with the global scientific community to refine these methods while keeping data accessible. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to collaborate with colleagues worldwide to improve blue carbon measurements and ensure the method remains open and usable for everyone,\u201d Peck said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By identifying and addressing this methodological gap, the study offers a constructive pathway to strengthen blue carbon science, improve coastal management decisions, and enhance predictions of marsh resilience in the face of sea level rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This story was written by Mackensie duPont Crowley, digital communications coordinator in URI\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

URI professor co-leads research to re-examine how stored carbon is measured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":191772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[2590,3116],"class_list":["post-191769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-carbon","tag-salt-marsh"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191769"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191808,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191769\/revisions\/191808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}