Investigating Coastal Disturbance Contributions to Climate Change Acceleration

Wetlands can store carbon 30-40 times faster, and for longer periods of time, than terrestrial ecosystems. As a result, coastal wetland ecosystems are known to play a crucial role in combating climate change. Activities such as dredging and shoreline erosion have potential negative impacts on these coastal environments, hindering their capacity to store carbon. Not only this, but it is possible that the aforementioned disturbances cause the breakdown of blue carbon via microbial activity, subsequently releasing greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere and accelerating climate change. The proposed project will involve simulation of the aforementioned disturbances in laboratory mesocosms, and subsequent monitoring of microbial activity and carbon decomposition, in order to quantify greenhouse-gas-release response. The laboratory simulations will be supplemented with field visits to coastal wetland environments in the Melbourne area. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Andrea Bradford

Student:

Partner:

Deakin University

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Sustainability & the Environment; Natural Resources; Water

University:

University of Guelph

Program: