Decoupling of Soil Organic Carbon and Bulk Density in Coastal Zones under Anthropogenic Disturbance (IMAGE)
Caption
Decoupling of soil organic carbon and bulk density in coastal zones under anthropogenic disturbance. This graphical summary illustrates the study’s key findings. High‑resolution, depth‑resolved sampling (10‑cm intervals down to 1 m) across natural salt marshes and human‑modified lands (e.g., croplands) reveals that anthropogenic activities break the tight negative relationship between soil organic carbon (SOC) and bulk density (BD) observed in undisturbed wetlands. While SOC is primarily driven by soil depth and ocean salinity, BD responds mainly to hydro‑geomorphic distance from the coast. Conventional pedotransfer functions that estimate BD from SOC, when applied to disturbed areas, show limited explanatory power (R² ≤ 0.22), and yield an mean baseline RMSE = 0.22 g cm⁻³ across all samples and depths. The authors therefore advocate for independent, high‑resolution BD profiling as an essential step for reliable blue carbon accounting and improved coastal carbon management.
Credit
Environmental Science and Ecotechnology
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CC BY-NC-ND