Drivers of change and uncertainties on blue carbon dynamics across the world’s mangroves: A walk through spatial and temporal scales
Mangroves thrive along nearly all the world’s tropical and subtropical coastlines. This pantropical distribution spanning broad geographical gradients – climate, sea level rise, geomorphology – has shaped the diversity and plasticity of mangrove forests as we know today. Understanding how these drivers interact in time and space to control mangroves’ physical environments and ecological feedbacks is fundamental to account for present and future carbon dynamics along ever-changing coastlines. Here, we review process-based concepts and map data available on carbon fluxes and stocks across the world’s mangroves to ask: How far are we from really understanding mangroves’ significance to the global climate system?