Mangrove forest Soil Organic Carbon (2018)

Mangrove forests are considered some of the most carbon-dense ecosystems in the world with most of the carbon stored in the soil. In order for mangrove forests to be included in climate mitigation efforts, knowledge of the spatial distribution of mangrove soil carbon stocks are critical. Current global estimates do not capture enough of the finer scale variability that would be required to inform local decisions on siting protection and restoration projects. This dataset compiles a large geo-referenced database of mangrove soil carbon measurements using a novel machine-learning based statistical model of the distribution of carbon density using spatially comprehensive data at a 30 m resolution. This model, which included a prior estimate of soil carbon from the global SoilGrids 250 m model, was able to capture 63% of the vertical and horizontal variability in soil organic carbon density (RMSE of 10.9 kg m−3). The resulting map products from this work are intended to serve nations seeking to include mangrove habitats in payment-for- ecosystem services projects and in designing effective mangrove conservation strategies.

See: Sanderman J, Hengl T, Fiske G, Solvik K, Adame MF, Benson L, et al. A global map of mangrove forest soil carbon at 30 m spatial resolution. Environ Res Lett. 2018;13: 055002. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aabe1c [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aabe1c/meta].

Data can be downloaded from the Harvard dataverse [https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/OCYUIT].