Estimating blue carbon potential in Cocó state park: An approach using remote sensing products
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62059/LatArXiv.preprints.653Keywords:
Blue carbon, Carbon stock, Urban mangroves, Climate change mitigationAbstract
In the context of the climate emergency, urban mangroves constitute strategic ecosystems for climate change mitigation, although their management is constrained by the scarcity of quantitative data on their carbon stocks. This study estimates the Blue Carbon potential and the spatial distribution of carbon stocks in the Cocó State Park (PEC), Fortaleza, Brazil, over the period 2010–2022. To this end, we employed geoprocessing techniques and integrated global-scale remote sensing products from the ESA Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI) with regional datasets from MapBiomas (considering the soil layer down to 30 cm depth), in order to quantify biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC). The results reveal that the PEC mangroves functioned as an active carbon sink, with an 11.3% increase in areal extent and a 21.5% increase in total carbon stock, rising from 45,988.9 MgC in 2010 to 55,871.9 MgC in 2022. The edaphic component represented the dominant reservoir, accounting for 69.5% of the total stock and exhibiting high temporal stability. Spatial analysis identified a functional duality, with a dynamic western sector characterized by greater biomass gains, and an eastern sector acting as a stable SOC reservoir. With a storage capacity of up to 205,049.8 Mg of CO₂ equivalent by the end of the study period, the park's resilience to urban pressure is confirmed, providing a fundamental quantitative baseline for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate finance strategies.
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