55 / 72
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Coral Reefs
Coastal Wetlands
Coastal System
Inland Wetlands
Tropical Forests
Rivers and lakes
Temperate Forests
Grasslands
Woodlands
Open Ocean
Mangroves
Seagrasses
ABOVE GROUND
BELOW GROUND
Salt marshes
Blue Carbon ecosystems provide a highly valuable service
by sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon
Different ecosystems absorb CO
2
from the atmosphere at different
rates. Coastal ecosystems have a
very high sequestration rate
The carbon sequestered is then
stored in the living biomass of
plants, its above ground part
The largest amount of carbon is
stored by the plants in the soil,
below the ground level
Visit
abudhabi.bluecarbonportal.org
to
find out more about Blue Carbon
resource in Abu Dhabi.
Organic carbon stored
Tons of Carbonper Km
2
Ecosystem service value
Thousand US Dollars per hectare per year
205 000
100 000
50 000
10 000
1 000
Sources: Schile, L.,
etal
., in preparation, Carbon stocks in arid coastal environments.
For submission into
Ecosystems
; Murray, B., C., et al., Green Payments for Blue
Carbon Economic Incentives for ProtectingThreatened Coastal Habitats, Nikolas
Institute, Duke University, 2011.
RICCARDOPRAVETTONI/GRID-Arendal2013
Higher estimate
Lower estimate