Are methane emissions from mangrove stems a cryptic carbon loss pathway? Insights from a catastrophic forest mortality

What is it about?

Methane emissions from tree-stems are poorly understood and to date have not been quantified from mangrove forests. Here we provide the first ever measurements of tree-stem methane emissions from both living and dead mangrove forest, from an Australian coastline that suffered a massive climate-induced mortality event in 2016 - the largest ever recorded. We found dead mangrove tree-stems emitted eight times more methane than living forest tree-stems, and may account for up to 26 % of the net ecosystem methane flux. These results have implications for blue carbon budgets and any future large scale mangrove mortality events.

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