Supervisory Team :
Craig Smeaton –University of St Andrews
- Fred Worrall -Durham University
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Lead Institution
University of St Andrews
School of Geography and Sustainable DevelopmentFunding Status : Fully funded Phd
Deadline for applications: 3rd of January 2025
Blue carbon habitats such as saltmarsh, seagrass and mangroves are recognised as hotspot for the burial and storage of organic carbon (OC)[1]. In the United Kingdom saltmarsh is the primary blue carbon habitat covering an area of 452 km2 and is estimated to accumulate 46,563 tonnes of OC annually[2]; with a total of 5.2 million tonnes of OC stored in the soil of these marshes[3]. The magnitude of these intertidal OC stores has attracted the attention of NGOs and national agencies to which seek to preserve, protect and expand the sedimentary C resources within these habitats and to include them in national and international climate budgets; natural capital assessments; and greenhouse gas reporting.
However, our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the accumulation, transformation and storage of organic matter (OM) in saltmarsh environments is poorly constrained. In the absence of quantitative understanding of the biogeochemical functioning of saltmarshes any management and policy interventions would be reckless and the inclusion of saltmarshes in national and international climate frameworks, natural capital accounting and GHG reporting will remain speculative at best.
In this project we will bring state-of-the-art approaches from peatland[4,5] and marine science[6,7] to quantify the biogeochemical mechanisms governing the accumulation, transformation and storage of OM in UK saltmarshes. This improved understanding of biogeochemical functioning of saltmarsh ecosystems will allow robust evidence led policy and management interventions to be developed and lay the foundation for UK saltmarshes to be included in national C budgets, natural capital accounting and GHG reporting.
