Dataset: Increasing rates of carbon burial in southwest Florida coastal wetlands

We propose that these increases represent net acceleration. Change in relative sea-level rise is the most likely large-scale driver of acceleration, and sediment deposition from large storms can contribute to periodic increases. Mangrove sites had higher OC and lignin burial rates than interior marsh sites, indicating inherent differences in OC burial factors between the two habitat types.

The higher OC burial rates in mangrove soils mean that their encroachment into interior, freshwater marshes has the potential to increase burial rates in those locations even more than might be expected from the acceleration trends. Regionally, these findings suggest that burial represents a substantially growing proportion of the coastal wetland carbon budget.