Session Lead: Raymond Najjar (Penn State University)
Co-Lead(s): Cassie Gubisz, Whitman Miller, and Amanda Knobloch
Session Format: Oral presentations
Session Description:
Carbon is a common thread that links numerous important estuarine issues, such as hypoxia, acidification, marsh inundation, and declining water clarity. Estuarine carbon is also important because it is the primary linkage between land and sea in the global carbon cycle, which is a key component of the climate system. Increasingly, estuaries are being considered as sites of carbon storage, both natural—including blue carbon sinks in submerged vegetation and tidal wetlands—and anthropogenic (e.g., marine carbon dioxide removal via ocean alkalinity enhancement). This session seeks contributions on all aspects of carbon cycling in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal systems, including biological, chemical, and physical processes that transport and transform carbon in all of its forms (dissolved, particulate, organic, and inorganic). Studies that characterize linkages among the different carbon reservoirs, such as rivers, tidal wetlands, estuarine open waters, the atmosphere, and sediments, are particularly welcome. Approaches for studying carbon cycling may include measurements of carbon stocks and fluxes, numerical modeling, isotopic analysis, and remote sensing. Efforts to place carbon cycling in Chesapeake Bay in a broader context, particularly linkages to other phenomena in Chesapeake Bay and contrasts with other estuarine systems, are encouraged.