Decline of the Mangrove Forest Shield Against Global Warming

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This coastal forest destruction results in 10 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation, which is the second largest source of CO2 after burning fossil fuels, according to the study's findings.

Fewer trees not only mean that less CO2 is absorbed from the air, but also the release of carbon stocks that have accumulated in shallow water sediments for thousands of years.

The mangrove trees with their distinctive roots that adorn the coastlines in more than 100 countries, provide many benefits to the people living around them.

The brackish waters where the trees grow fertile are seedlings for many species of fish and shrimp that are essential for the commercial fishing industry worldwide.

Other "ecosystem services" from mangrove forests in environmental science are protection from storms and cyclones.

Cyclone Nargis, which killed 138,000 people in Myanmar in 2008, according to experts will be slightly more deadly if half of the country's mangrove forests are not cut down for timber or for shrimp farming.

Daniel Donato from the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service in Hilo, Hawaii and an international team of researchers examined the carbon content of 25 mangrove forests that lie along the Indo-Pacific region.

The trees store atmospheric CO2 like tropical forests on land, according to their findings. Below the water surface, mangroves are even more efficient, hoarding five times more carbon in the same surface area.

"Mangrove forests are one of the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics," said Donato and colleagues in the study, published in Nature Geoscience.mage]

"Our data suggest that discussions on the key role of tropical wetlands in climate change can be significantly expanded to include mangrove forests."

In his supporting commentary, Steven Bouillon of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium said the carbon stock found by the study "provides a powerful incentive to consider mangrove ecosystems as a priority area for nature conservation."