Layer: Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows & Tidal Marsh (ID: 3)

Name: Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows & Tidal Marsh

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Description: In response to the New England Governor and Eastern Canadian Premier 2017 Climate Change Action Plan recommendation to “manage blue carbon resources to preserve and enhance their existing carbon reservoirs,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened a New England Blue Carbon Inventory Workgroup (comprised of a variety of federal, New England state, academic, and non-profit organizations) to develop an inventory of blue carbon stocks from Maine to Long Island, New York. The Workgroup focused its inventory efforts on salt marshes and eelgrass meadows, leveraging existing habitat maps for geographic data. Those data include the Portal's regional Eelgrass Meadows layer and the Tidal Marsh Vegetation Classification layer developed by the <a href="https://www.tidalmarshbirds.org/" target="_blank">Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program</a>, which is also viewable on the Portal. The Workgroup compiled carbon bulk density and organic carbon concentration data collected within these habitats throughout the region from 21 studies published between 1992-2022 over 189 sites: 114 within high and low salt marsh; 40 within Phragmites; and 35 within eelgrass. The available data allowed for the calculation of carbon stocks to a depth of 30 cm. For visual display purposes, sediment carbon heat maps were developed to highlight areas of greatest carbon accumulation. The Portal displays four layers resulting from the Workgroup's analysis: <br/> <ul> <li>Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows</li> <li>Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Tidal Marsh</li> <li>Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows & Tidal Marsh</li> <li>Blue Carbon Stocks Width of 90% Confidence Interval (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows & Tidal Marsh</li></ul> <br/> Based on available data and Workgroup calculations, the target geographic area has an estimated 218,222 acres of eelgrass meadows, salt marsh and saline Phragmites, which are estimated to provide a reservoir of 7,523,568 megagrams (equivalent to metric tons) of blue carbon, or the equivalent to the annual carbon emissions from over 5,944,024 passenger vehicles. Due to data limitations, the carbon stock estimate represents a mere fraction of the actual quantity of accumulated carbon in these habitats. The findings from the Workgroup’s efforts and the resulting map products can help inform land and coastal management policies, fisheries management, and climate change mitigation practices. To read more detail about the Workgroup's effort, analysis methods, and results, download the report from EPA Region 1: <a href="https://www.northeastoceandata.org/files/metadata/Themes/Habitat/EPABlueCarbonReport.pdf" target="_blank">The Blue Carbon Reservoirs from Maine to Long Island, NY</a>.

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Copyright Text: US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1

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