ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6747-1366
Current Organisation
Deakin University
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S43247-023-00838-X
Abstract: The soil in terrestrial and coastal blue carbon ecosystems is an important carbon sink. National carbon inventories require accurate assessments of soil carbon in these ecosystems to aid conservation, preservation, and nature-based climate change mitigation strategies. Here we harmonise measurements from Australia’s terrestrial and blue carbon ecosystems and apply multi-scale machine learning to derive spatially explicit estimates of soil carbon stocks and the environmental drivers of variation. We find that climate and vegetation are the primary drivers of variation at the continental scale, while ecosystem type, terrain, clay content, mineralogy and nutrients drive subregional variations. We estimate that in the top 0–30 cm soil layer, terrestrial ecosystems hold 27.6 Gt (19.6–39.0 Gt), and blue carbon ecosystems 0.35 Gt (0.20–0.62 Gt). Tall open eucalypt and mangrove forests have the largest soil carbon content by area, while eucalypt woodlands and hummock grasslands have the largest total carbon stock due to the vast areas they occupy. Our findings suggest these are essential ecosystems for conservation, preservation, emissions avoidance, and climate change mitigation because of the additional co-benefits they provide.
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 10-05-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1617940/V1
Abstract: Ecosystem accounting is a structured approach to compiling environmental and economic information. While accounts are typically used to compile data on past trends, they have an unrealised capacity to also be used to inform decisions by providing a structured approach to scenario evaluation of potential futures. We used the global standard for ecosystem accounting (System for Environmental Economic Accounting), to examine past trends and potential future restoration options in two large metropolitan bays, where data existed for tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrass. We assessed options for reversing the loss of these ecosystems and although the net benefit varied between sites, we found that if all sites were restored, the overall investment-benefit ratio would be 10.5, resulting from AUD$100 million of ecosystem services from an investment of AUD$8.5 million. This study highlights the advantage of structured approaches to data compilation through ecosystem accounts, and consideration of ecosystem dynamics and response to restoration actions, to inform management decisions.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.JENVMAN.2021.114301
Abstract: The restoration of blue carbon ecosystems, such as mangrove forests, is increasingly used as a management tool to mitigate climate change by removing and sequestering atmospheric carbon in the ground. However, estimates of carbon-offset potential are currently based on data from natural mangrove forests, potentially leading to overestimating the carbon-offset potential from restored mangroves. Here, in the first study of its kind, we utilise
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 09-2018
Abstract: Researchers are increasingly studying carbon (C) storage by natural ecosystems for climate mitigation, including coastal ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems. Unfortunately, little guidance on how to achieve robust, cost-effective estimates of blue C stocks to inform inventories exists. We use existing data (492 cores) to develop recommendations on the s ling effort required to achieve robust estimates of blue C. Using a broad-scale, spatially explicit dataset from Victoria, Australia, we applied multiple spatial methods to provide guidelines for reducing variability in estimates of soil C stocks over large areas. With a separate dataset collected across Australia, we evaluated how many s les are needed to capture variability within soil cores and the best methods for extrapolating C to 1 m soil depth. We found that 40 core s les are optimal for capturing C variance across 1000's of kilometres but higher density s ling is required across finer scales (100–200 km). Accounting for environmental variation can further decrease required s ling. The within core analyses showed that nine s les within a core capture the majority of the variability and log-linear equations can accurately extrapolate C. These recommendations can help develop standardized methods for s ling programmes to quantify soil C stocks at national scales.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-04-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-023-37385-0
Abstract: While marine kelp forests have provided valuable ecosystem services for millennia, the global ecological and economic value of those services is largely unresolved. Kelp forests are diminishing in many regions worldwide, and efforts to manage these ecosystems are hindered without accurate estimates of the value of the services that kelp forests provide to human societies. Here, we present a global estimate of the ecological and economic potential of three key ecosystem services - fisheries production, nutrient cycling, and carbon removal provided by six major forest forming kelp genera ( Ecklonia, Laminaria, Lessonia, Macrocystis, Nereocystis , and Saccharina ). Each of these genera creates a potential value of between $64,400 and $147,100/hectare each year. Collectively, they generate between $465 and $562 billion/year worldwide, with an average of $500 billion. These values are primarily driven by fisheries production (mean $29,900, 904 Kg/Ha/year) and nitrogen removal ($73,800, 657 Kg N/Ha/year), though kelp forests are also estimated to sequester 4.91 megatons of carbon from the atmosphere/year highlighting their potential as blue carbon systems for climate change mitigation. These findings highlight the ecological and economic value of kelp forests to society and will facilitate better informed marine management and conservation decisions.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 26-04-2021
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 26-10-2020
Abstract: Consumption transfers energy and materials through food chains and fundamentally influences ecosystem productivity. Therefore, mapping the distribution of consumer feeding intensity is key to understanding how environmental changes influence bio ersity, with consequent effects on trophic transfer and top–down impacts through food webs. Our global comparison of standardized bait consumption in shallow coastal habitats finds a peak in feeding intensity away from the equator that is better explained by the presence of particular consumer families than by latitude or temperature. This study complements recent demonstrations that changes in bio ersity can have similar or larger impacts on ecological processes than those of climate.
Publisher: The Nature Conservancy
Date: 25-11-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-06-2018
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14319
Abstract: Nontidal wetlands are estimated to contribute significantly to the soil carbon pool across the globe. However, our understanding of the occurrence and variability of carbon storage between wetland types and across regions represents a major impediment to the ability of nations to include wetlands in greenhouse gas inventories and carbon offset initiatives. We performed a large-scale survey of nontidal wetland soil carbon stocks and accretion rates from the state of Victoria in south-eastern Australia-a region spanning 237,000 km
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2019.134680
Abstract: Coastal and estuarine ecosystems, such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows, provide a range of ecosystem services, but have seen extensive degradation and decline. Effective protection and rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems requires an understanding of how efforts may improve associated ecosystem services. In this study, we present a spatially-explicit angler catch function to predict boat-based recreational catch as a function of ecosystem and angler characteristics. We developed a choice model to investigate where recreational anglers launch their boats and fish in southeast Australia. By linking the recreational catch models with a choice model, we were able to quantify welfare gains of ecosystem rehabilitation. We found welfare gains across fishing locations varied widely due to heterogeneous coverage of seagrass. The welfare gains of different fishing locations ranged from near-zero in areas of low seagrass coverage, to AU $19.18 (10% increase in seagrass area) and to AU $85.55 (30% increase) per trip in location of high seagrass coverage. Given two million fishing trips occurring per year in Port Phillip Bay, and one million in Western Port, the aggregated welfare gain could scale up to AU $6.2 million with a 10% increase in seagrass coverage, and AU $22 million per annum with a 30% increase in seagrass. We also calculated the welfare loss associated with total loss of seagrass ecosystem in each fishing location to represent the current value, which varied significantly, ranging from near-zero in some locations to AU $87.47 per trip in other locations. Over the past several decades, the bay-wide seagrass ecosystem has dropped by 36.7% in Western Port, resulting in potential welfare loss of an estimated AU $ 86.7 million per annum. Our analyses provide insightful spatial policy implications for coastal and marine ecosystem rehabilitation in the region.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-05-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-02-2019
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 07-12-2020
DOI: 10.31223/X5NP53
No related grants have been discovered for Paul Carnell.