Between January and May 2017, the ICC along with CATIE and Carlos Rodriguez, performed a series of activities to determine the capacities of the Mangrove ecosystem to store blue carbon in the Pacific area of Guatemala.
For this purpose, samples were taken in the mangrove ecosystem of the Sipacate Naranjo Conservation Area located in Sipacate, department of Escuintla. The main objective of this investigation is to quantify the reservoirs of aerial and underground carbon, widely known as “blue carbon”.
The aerial component is constituted by quantifying fallen wood, the diameter at breast height of trees higher than 1.30 m, and seedlings/pneumatophores. Whilst the underground component is constituted by the analysis of soil at 5 different depths.
In the following months, Carlos Rodriguez, student of the Masters in Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change of The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) of Costa Rica, will be analyzing the gathered information to determine the blue carbon reservoirs in the Sipacate Naranjo Conservation Area.
What is blue carbon?
Blue carbon is the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems. These ecosystems sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon in both the plants and the sediment below. For example, over 95% of the carbon in seagrass meadows is stored in the soils*. (Quoted from Blue Carbon Initiative).
