Do ENSO and Coastal Development Enhance Coastal Burial of Terrestrial Carbon?

ABSTRACT: Carbon cycling on the east coast of Australia has the potential to be strongly affected by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) intensification and coastal development (industrialization and urbanization). We performed paleoreconstructions of estuarine sediments from a seagrass-dominated estuary on the east coast of Australia (Tuggerah Lake, New South Wales) to test the hypothesis that millennial-scale ENSO intensification and European settlement in Australia have increased the transfer of organic carbon from land into coastal waters. Our data show that carbon accumulation rates within coastal sediments increased significantly during periods of maximum millennial-scale ENSO intensity ("super-ENSO") and coastal development. We suggest that ENSO and coastal development destabilize and liberat

SUBMITTER: Macreadie PI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4686213 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature