Sediment cores (1 m in depth) were collected at each of three mangrove sites at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida. At each site, one core was collected in the hydrogeomorphic zone called the fringe, which is the area directly adjacent to the ocean. The other core was collected in the zone called the basin, which is the large area, often behind a small berm, that receives less direct tidal energy. All cores were sectioned and measured for sectional volume, dry weight and % organic carbon (OC) by weight.

Mangrove inventory data from J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA collected in 2016 and 2017. Plot data includes X and Y downed dead wood count, mangrove species information and site descriptions. Tree data includes the three species found on the refuge: Avicennia germinans (Black mangroves), Laguncularia racemosa (White mangroves) and Rhizophora mangle (Red mangroves). They were inventoried for diameter at breast height (DBH), height, and dead status.

The San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico, contains mangrove forests that store significant amounts of organic carbon in soils and biomass. There is a strong urbanization gradient across the estuary, from the highly urbanized and clogged Caño Martin Peña in the western part of the estuary, a series of lagoons in the center of the estuary, and a tropical forest reserve (Piñones) in the easternmost part with limited urbanization. We collected sediment cores to determine carbon burial rates and vertical sediment accretion from five sites in the San Juan Bay Estuary. Cores were radiometrically-dated using lead-210 and the Plum age model. Sites had soil C burial rates ranging from 50 grams per meter squared per year (g m-2 y-1) in the San José lagoon to 632 g m-2 y-1 in the Caño Martin Peña in recent decades. Soil accretion and carbon burial rates were greater in recent decades (1970-2016) compared to historic decades (1930-1970) at some of the forest mangrove sites (i.e. Caño Martin Peña). Apparently, not only urbanization, but site-specific flushing patterns, landscape setting, and soil characteristics affected soil C burial rates. This dataset can help evaluate how differences in urbanization (low in the forest preserve to high in the clogged canal), flushing, and landscape setting influence soil accretion and carbon burial in urban, tropical mangrove forests.

Coastal wetlands in Tampa Bay, Florida, are important ecosystems that deliver a variety of ecosystem services. Key to ecosystem functioning is wetland response to sea-level rise through accumulation of mineral and organic sediment. The organic sediment within coastal wetlands is composed of carbon sequestered over the time scale of the wetland’s existence. This study was conducted to provide information on soil accretion and carbon storage rates across a variety of coastal ecosystems that was utilized in the Tampa Bay Blue Carbon Assessment (ESA, 2017; linkage below). Ten sediment cores were collected from six Tampa Bay wetland sites in October 2015 (maximum core length 40 centimeters). Three main vegetation types were targeted for core collection: salt marsh, dominated by Juncus and Spartina alternaflora; mangrove, including Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa and/or Avicennia germinans; and young mangrove, where wetlands were created within the last three decades. An additional surface sediment sample was collected from a salt barren, as this site was not conducive to coring. Marsh surface elevations were measured at each site (ranging from 0.771 meters to 1.462 meters relative to NAVD88) to determine the marsh boundaries within current tidal conditions. Continuous Rate of Supply age models, based on lead-210 and cesium-137 isotope analysis, were constructed to evaluate how vertical accretion and carbon burial rates have changed during the past century. Over that time, accretion rates were very similar for each ecosystem: restored marsh sites (2.5 mm per year), followed by the salt marshes (2.7 mm per year) and mature mangroves (3.2 mm per year). The resulting carbon burial rates over the past century vary as a function of vegetation type, with mature mangroves burying on average 163 grams carbon per square meter per year, compared to young (restoring) mangroves with an average of 94 grams carbon per square meter per year and the salt marsh with an average of 64 grams carbon per square meter per year . This dataset also includes dry bulk density (0.02 - 1.70 grams per cubic centimeter), percent carbon (0.32 %-39.08 %), and percent loss on ignition (0.66 % – 80.2 %) from a sub-set of core sections in order to assess possible correlative relationships among these parameters. https://estuaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/FINAL_Tampa-Bay-Blue-Carbon-Assessment-Report-updated-compressed.pdf

In 2016, U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS SPCMSC) researchers and academic collaborators collected cores of mangrove peat from two islands in the Florida Keys: Snipe Key (24.679°N, 81.653°W) and Swan Key (25.349°N, 80.251°W). This data release contains the radiocarbon ages and associated data for peat samples analyzed throughout the two cores (SNK-16-C1 and SBC-16-C10).

Dataset provides mangrove soil accretion rates, dry bulk density, %carbon, %nitrogen, nitrogen, carbon and sulfur stable isotopes from 5 sites in the San Juan Bay Estuary, Puerto Rico.

Mangrove restoration has a strong potential to enhance the services provided by coastal wetlands on a number of Department of the Interior (DOI) managed lands throughout the southeastern United States of America. Services include storm protection, water quality improvement, and biological carbon sequestration. Forest structural attributes including basal area, tree height, and stem density by species are used to calculate above ground biomass and above ground productivity. Percent cover is used to asses the forest canopy health. The data collected for the soils are: bulk density, percent total Nitrogen, percent total Carbon, and selected samples percent total Phosporus. The forest structure plots were placed in three zones; healthy, transition, and dead, along with a reference zone to compare how these plots change over time with the hydrologic restoration. These are pre-restoration measurements.

Mangrove restoration has a strong potential to enhance the services provided by coastal wetlands on a number of Department of the Interior (DOI) managed lands throughout the southeastern United States of America. Services include storm protection, water quality improvement, and biological carbon sequestration. Forest structural attributes including basal area, tree height, and stem density by species are used to calculate above ground biomass and above ground productivity. Percent cover is used to asses the forest canopy health. The data collected for the soils are: bulk density, percent total Nitrogen, percent total Carbon, and selected samples percent total Phosporus. The forest structure plots were placed in three zones; healthy, transition, and dead, along with a reference zone to compare how these plots change over time with the hydrologic restoration. These are pre-restoration measurements.

Six blocks of mangrove sediments, measuring 30 cm x 30 cm x 15 cm, complete with crab burrows and root fragments were collected one metre within the edge of a Rhizophora stylosa forest adjacent to Cocoa Creek, Cape Cleveland, North Queensland. Sediment blocks were placed in individual plastic bins to form temporary mesocosms. Seawater was added to the mesocosms at 15 and 23 hours daily and siphoned off after one hour to simulate tidal cycles. Light conditions were kept low and shade cloth covers were used to inhibit growth of an algal mat which might alter oxygen conditions in the sediments.Magnesium peroxide powder, an oxygen release compound, (3.14 g dry weight) was evenly distributed along a 13 cm long and 4 cm deep cut into three of the mesocosms. After 40 hours, vertical oxygen profiles were measured down to the aerobic-anaerobic zone interface in 100 µm increments at three sites along the centre line of the buried compound in each mesocosm.In each of the three remaining mesocosms three pre-disturbance vertical oxygen profiles were measured along a 13 cm long and 4 cm deep cut in the sediment. An airstone was then placed into the 4 cm deep cut, with its flat upper surface approximately 2 cm below the surface and completely buried. Air was administered to the sediments via the airstone at a rate of 1L/min at 400 kPa. Following aeration treatments for 40 hours, the aerobic zone was described in reference to the airstone. Oxygen concentration of sediments was measured for several profiles taken vertically from the surface. The first profile was taken near the centre, immediately adjacent to the airstone, and 3.5 cm from the input end. Each successive profile was taken 5 mm further away from the previous, perpendicular to the airstone, until they resembled pre-disturbance profiles. Air flow continued whilst measurements were taken. To establish whether burial of the airstone might influence the oxygen profiles, an additional three profiles were measured after burial of the airstone and before aeration in one of the mesocosms.Field trials of forced aeration were conducted in a Rhizophora stylosa mangrove forest at Fishermans Landing, near Gladstone. The procedures, described earlier, for positioning the airstone in sediments and the depth of burial and measuring oxygen saturation, were repeated in this trial. The delivery of air was pulsed in field trials since this was considered sufficient to aerate sediments based on observations made during mesocosm trials. The pulse cycle used was 60 minutes airflow and 60 minutes off, repeated for around 40 hours prior to measurements being taken. As the majority of hydrocarbons introduced to sediment in an oil spill initially reside on the surface, availability of oxygen in this layer is critical for biodegradation by the more active aerobic microbes. The objective of this series of experiments was to determine whether forced aeration and/or magnesium peroxide (an oxygen release compound) might provide significant increases in molecular oxygen saturation in the surface aerobic layer of sediments under common tropical mangrove trees.

This study evaluated CO2 flux from soils and pneumatophores of Avicennia germinans mangrove trees subjected to nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization versus an unfertilized control with a basin mangrove ecosystem. Data were collected twice, once in the summer (June 2020) and once in the winter (November 2020) and will be used to help develop a carbon budget for basin mangroves on Sanibel Island, Florida. These data were presented as part of an M.S. Thesis (Florida Atlantic University, Natalie T. Faron, 2021), entitled “The impact of nutrient loading on the soil and root respiration rates of Florida mangroves”.