Topic: The Role of Salt Marsh Carbon Exports in the Coastal CO2 System and Carbon Cycling
Speaker: Dr. Zhaohui Wang
Time: Friday, November 15, 2019, 2:00 pm
Venue: F708, New Main Building
Abstract：
The Dynamic lateral exports of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) via tidal exchange from highly productive intertidal salt marshes are an important piece of puzzle in the coastal carbon cycle, challenging our capability of assessing coastal carbon budgets and projecting future changes under anthropogenic pressure. The effects of these exports on seawater chemistry are profound yet complicated to study. High-resolution measurements are required to capture the true dynamics of such exports. This study presents the latest development of assessing lateral DIC fluxes from tidal salt marshes and examining their effects on seawater chemistry and coastal carbon budgets. The latest estimates of marsh DIC exports suggest they are a major term in the marsh carbon budget and can be translated into one of the primary components in the coastal carbon cycle regionally, and potentially globally. Interestingly, there is also an important but often-ignored linkage between organic carbon and inorganic carbon pools via the effects of organic alkalinity in marsh-influenced coastal water. Organic carbon pool may play a significant, but understudied biogeochemical role of controlling the coastal CO2 chemistry and fluxes via the effects of organic alkalinity, which further the importance of marsh carbon exports in coastal carbon cycle.
Biography:
Dr. Zhaohui Wang is currently an associate research fellow with Tenure at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), a comprehensive research institution of marine science and engineering on the Atlantic coast of the United States. He received his Ph.D. degree and Master’s degree from Univ. Georgia and Univ. New Hampshire respectively, and then worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Univ. of South Florida. Since 2009 he has been with WHOI, and is mainly engaged in the research of marine chemistry, biogeochemistry and sensor technology. In recent years, Dr. Wang has yielded a series of world’s leading results in deep-sea in-situ biochemical sensing, which have been applied to deep-sea explorations.
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