Do coastal salt mudflats (sabkhas) contribute to the blue carbon sequestration?

Blue carbon represents the organic carbon retained in marine coastal ecosystems. Sabkhas (an Arabic for "mudflats"), formed in tidal environments under arid conditions, have been proposed to be capable of carbon sequestrating. Despite the growing understanding of the critical role of blue carbon ecosystems, there is a current dispute about whether sabkhas around the Persian Gulf can contribute to carbon retention as a blue carbon ecosystem. The arguments often lack data on a critical contributor, inorganic carbon in the form of carbonates, which can drive the net carbon exchange with the atmosphere. In this study we inventory organic and inorganic carbon retention capacity in two contrasting sabkhas of the Qatar Peninsula: carbonaceous Dohat Faishakh and siliciclastic Khor Al-Adaid. Despite the differences in organic carbon stock between the two sabkhas, the Dohat Faishakh sabkha has higher (37.17 ± 0.81 Mg C_org ha^-1) than it is in the Khor Al-Adaid sabkha (13.75 ± 0.38 Mg C_org ha^-1) for 0. 44 m sediment depth, the organic carbon retained in sabkhas is similar to those reported for mangroves and salt marshes. Notably, calculated CO₂ net sequestration indicated that both sabkhas evade CO₂ into the atmosphere. Thus, carbonate formation negated organic carbon accumulation in carbonaceous sabkha. Consequently, for proper evaluation of sabkhas as a blue carbon ecosystem, an inorganic carbon analysis, especially of carbonate formation, is inevitable. Considering only organic carbon stock may ay overestimate carbon sequestration capacity.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10533-024-01204-5.