Carbon Storage
Carbon Storage
Carbon storage is the retention of carbon in natural or engineered reservoirs so that it remains outside the atmosphere for a period of time. It is closely connected with carbon sequestration, which describes the capture and subsequent storage of carbon dioxide or carbon derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Carbon can be stored through biological processes in forests, soils, grasslands, peatlands, wetlands and coastal ecosystems, or through geological and technological approaches that place captured carbon dioxide underground or transform it into stable minerals. The duration of storage varies enormously. Carbon held in vegetation may be released by fire, harvesting or decomposition, while carbon converted into minerals or securely isolated in deep geological formations may remain stored for geological timescales.
Because no single reservoir can provide all of the carbon storage potentially required for climate-change mitigation, research increasingly examines a portfolio of approaches. These include protecting existing natural carbon stocks, increasing biological sequestration, restoring degraded ecosystems, improving agricultural soils, producing biochar, accelerating mineral weathering and permanently storing captured carbon dioxide underground.
Geological Carbon Storage
Geological carbon storage involves placing captured carbon dioxide into underground rock formations where it can be isolated from the atmosphere. Major potential storage formations include deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and natural-gas reservoirs.
After carbon dioxide is captured, it can be compressed and injected into porous reservoir rock beneath impermeable sealing layers. Effective storage depends on characteristics such as reservoir capacity, permeability, injectivity, pressure, fault structure, well integrity and the effectiveness of overlying seals.
Depleted oil and gas fields are of particular interest because their geology has often been extensively studied and existing wells and infrastructure may sometimes be reused. However, old wells can also create potential leakage pathways, making monitoring and well integrity important parts of storage projects.
Another approach is carbon mineralization. Carbon dioxide reacts with calcium-, magnesium- or iron-rich minerals and becomes incorporated into stable carbonate minerals. Research in reactive rocks such as basalt demonstrates that mineralization can convert injected carbon dioxide into solid mineral forms, potentially providing exceptionally durable storage.
Geological storage therefore differs fundamentally from many biological carbon sinks. Instead of maintaining carbon in living ecosystems that can later be disturbed, geological approaches seek to isolate or chemically stabilize carbon for very long periods.
Forest Carbon Storage
Forests are among the world's major biological carbon reservoirs. Carbon is stored in tree trunks, branches, leaves, roots, dead wood, litter and soils. Forest products can also retain carbon after trees are harvested, particularly when wood is incorporated into long-lived buildings and other durable products.
Both existing forests and regenerating forests influence the global carbon cycle. Old-growth forests can contain large accumulated carbon stocks and may continue absorbing additional carbon even at advanced ages. Regenerating and expanding forests can also remove substantial quantities of atmospheric carbon as vegetation grows.
Forest connectivity, climate, nutrient availability, forest age, management practices and ecosystem composition can all influence the amount and rate of carbon accumulation. Soil organisms, including fungi, may also play important roles in determining forest carbon storage.
Protecting existing forest carbon can be as important as creating new carbon sinks. Mature forests may contain carbon accumulated over decades or centuries, while newly planted forests require considerable time to develop comparable stocks.
Forest carbon is not necessarily permanent. Wildfire, drought, insects, disease, logging and climate-driven tree mortality can return stored carbon to the atmosphere. Climate strategies based on forest carbon therefore need to account for the possibility that apparently stored carbon can later be lost.
Forest management involves tradeoffs among protecting existing stocks, increasing tree growth, producing wood products, reducing disturbance risks and maintaining healthy forest soils. The effectiveness of any strategy depends heavily on local ecological conditions and long-term management.
Soil Carbon, Agriculture, Biochar and Enhanced Weathering
Soils represent one of Earth's largest terrestrial carbon reservoirs. Plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, and some of that carbon eventually enters soils through roots, plant residues, microorganisms and organic matter.
Agricultural practices can substantially influence these carbon stocks. Reduced tillage, crop rotations, perennial vegetation, compost, mulch, residue retention and other soil-management practices may increase soil organic carbon under appropriate conditions. Poor land management, erosion and intensive cultivation can instead reduce stored carbon.
The amount of carbon present in soil is not the only consideration. Its persistence is also important. Some soil carbon decomposes rapidly, while other carbon becomes physically protected within soil aggregates or associated with minerals and may remain for much longer periods.
Biochar provides another potential storage mechanism. Biomass is heated under limited oxygen to create a carbon-rich material that can be incorporated into soil. Because portions of biochar can resist decomposition, converting biomass into biochar may transfer carbon into a comparatively persistent pool while also affecting soil fertility, moisture and nutrient retention.
Enhanced rock weathering attempts to accelerate natural geochemical reactions that remove carbon dioxide. Finely crushed silicate or other reactive rocks can be applied to soils, where weathering reactions transform carbon into dissolved bicarbonate or carbonate forms.
The actual effectiveness of enhanced weathering depends on rock composition, particle size, temperature, rainfall, soil conditions, transportation requirements and the rate of chemical reaction. Large-scale deployment would also require reliable measurement of carbon removal and careful evaluation of environmental effects.
Researchers are also examining combinations of biological and mineral approaches, including the use of biochar together with enhanced weathering and the application of reactive minerals in agricultural and forest ecosystems.
Peatlands, Wetlands and Floodplain Carbon
Peatlands are exceptionally important long-term carbon stores. In waterlogged environments, plant material can accumulate faster than it decomposes, gradually creating thick deposits of carbon-rich peat over hundreds or thousands of years.
Northern peatlands and large tropical peat systems such as those of the Congo Basin and Indonesia contain enormous accumulated carbon stocks. In some locations, peatlands can store more carbon per unit area than neighboring forests because much of their carbon is retained below ground.
Their value as carbon reservoirs also makes their destruction particularly consequential. Drainage exposes previously waterlogged organic matter to oxygen and can accelerate decomposition. Fire can release carbon that accumulated over centuries or millennia. Climate warming and changing hydrology can further alter the balance between carbon accumulation and loss.
Restoring drained wetlands by rewetting them can restart organic-carbon burial, although rebuilding historical carbon stocks may require long periods.
Wetland climate effects are complicated by methane. Wetlands can remove carbon dioxide while simultaneously producing methane, meaning that their overall influence on climate depends on multiple greenhouse gases and changes through time.
Freshwater forested wetlands and river floodplains are additional carbon reservoirs that may be underestimated in conventional inventories. Sediments deposited in floodplains can preserve organic carbon for centuries or millennia.
Protecting wetlands therefore serves two related climate purposes: maintaining existing stores that would otherwise be vulnerable to release and allowing continued accumulation of new carbon.
Blue Carbon: Mangroves, Salt Marshes and Seagrasses
Blue carbon generally refers to carbon captured and stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, particularly mangrove forests, tidal salt marshes and seagrass meadows.
These ecosystems store carbon both in living vegetation and in sediments. Waterlogged, oxygen-poor coastal soils can slow decomposition, allowing organic carbon to remain buried for centuries or even millennia.
Mangroves can accumulate carbon in trees, roots and deep sediments. Salt marshes trap sediment and organic matter as tides move across coastal landscapes. Seagrass meadows slow water movement and encourage suspended particles and organic carbon to settle into marine sediments.
Connections among coastal ecosystems can increase their carbon-storage capacity. Landscapes containing interconnected mangroves and seagrass beds may retain more sediment carbon than isolated habitats because vegetation modifies currents, erosion and sediment deposition.
Coastal carbon stocks are nevertheless vulnerable. Dredging, coastal development, pollution, erosion, aquaculture, vegetation loss and climate change can damage these ecosystems and expose previously stored organic matter to decomposition.
Sea-level rise creates both risks and opportunities. Wetlands capable of migrating inland or accumulating sufficient sediment may continue storing carbon as sea level rises, while ecosystems trapped by development or rapidly eroding shorelines may lose both habitat and stored carbon.
Protecting existing mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses therefore avoids potential carbon emissions while maintaining continued sequestration. Restoration can rebuild carbon-storage capacity, but the amount, rate and permanence of storage vary among locations.
Permanence, Measurement and Climate Strategy
Carbon storage cannot be evaluated solely by measuring how much carbon initially enters a reservoir. Climate benefits also depend on how long the carbon remains stored, how accurately storage can be measured and whether the activity causes emissions elsewhere.
Different storage systems have very different permanence characteristics. Forest biomass may store carbon for decades or centuries but remains vulnerable to disturbance. Peatlands and wetland sediments can preserve carbon for thousands of years when their hydrology remains intact. Geological mineralization may immobilize carbon for geological timescales.
Monitoring is therefore central to credible carbon-storage strategies. Geological projects must track injected carbon dioxide, reservoir pressure, potential migration and well integrity. Forest and soil projects require repeated inventories or measurements. Wetland and blue-carbon projects require estimates of both carbon stocks and accumulation rates.
Satellite observations, field inventories, soil cores, ecosystem models and geophysical monitoring technologies are increasingly being combined to estimate carbon stocks and detect change.
Permanence also affects carbon markets and climate policy. A temporary increase in forest biomass is not necessarily equivalent to carbon permanently converted into carbonate minerals. Accounting systems therefore need to distinguish among the quantity of carbon stored, the expected duration of that storage and the probability that the carbon will later be released.
Conclusion
Carbon storage occurs across a wide range of natural and engineered systems. Forests, soils, grasslands, peatlands, wetlands, mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses already contain enormous carbon stocks accumulated through biological and geological processes. Protecting these existing reservoirs can prevent substantial quantities of carbon from returning to the atmosphere.
Additional carbon can potentially be stored through forest restoration, improved soil management, wetland restoration, biochar, enhanced weathering, geological injection and mineralization. Each approach has different capacities, costs, ecological consequences and storage durations.
The central challenge is therefore not simply capturing carbon but keeping it stored. Fire, drought, land-use change, drainage, erosion and other disturbances can reverse biological storage, while geological projects require secure reservoirs and long-term monitoring.
Effective climate policy is likely to depend on a combination of approaches: protecting large existing natural carbon stocks, restoring ecosystems capable of continued sequestration, improving management of working lands and developing highly durable geological and mineral storage where appropriate. The value of any carbon-storage strategy ultimately depends on how much carbon it removes or protects, how securely it is retained and how long that storage lasts.
Carbon Storage
Carbon Storage: Foundations and Overview
1. What Is Carbon Sequestration?
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | 2025
Carbon sequestration is the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, including both biological storage in ecosystems and geological storage in underground formations.
2. What’s the Difference Between Geologic and Biologic Carbon Sequestration?
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | 2025
Geologic sequestration stores compressed carbon dioxide underground, while biological sequestration stores atmospheric carbon in vegetation, soils, wood, and aquatic environments.
3. Summary for Policymakers: Climate Change 2022 — Mitigation of Climate Change
| IPCC Working Group III | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | 2022-04-04
The IPCC identifies durable carbon storage in geological, terrestrial, ocean, and product reservoirs as an important component of carbon dioxide removal strategies.
4. Carbon Dioxide Removal: Cross-Sectoral Perspectives
| IPCC Working Group III | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | 2022-04-04
This assessment compares carbon storage through afforestation, soil carbon, biochar, peatland restoration, BECCS, direct air capture, enhanced weathering, and ocean-based approaches.
5. Forests for Carbon
| Logan Yonavjak, John Talberth and Paula Swedeen | World Resources Institute | 2011-09-01
Forest ecosystems store carbon in trees, roots, soils, woody debris, and litter and can provide substantial climate benefits when carbon stocks are maintained.
6. Forest Environmental Services and Carbon Storage
| Food and Agriculture Organization | FAO | 2004
FAO describes methods for accounting for carbon stored in forest biomass, soils, litter, and other forest carbon pools.
7. The Role of Forests in the Global Carbon Budget
| Food and Agriculture Organization | State of the World's Forests | 2001
Forests accumulate carbon in living biomass, dead biomass, soils, litter, and forest products and constitute one of the world's major terrestrial carbon reservoirs.
8. Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Storage
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | n.d.
USGS research examines both geologic and biological approaches for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it over long periods.
9. Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage
| International Energy Agency | IEA | n.d.
The IEA reviews technologies for capturing carbon dioxide and storing it permanently in saline aquifers, depleted reservoirs, and other geological formations.
10. Carbon Emissions and Sequestration
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | n.d.
Geological carbon sequestration can place captured carbon dioxide into deep rock formations where it can remain isolated from the atmosphere.
Geological and Mineral Carbon Storage
11. Feasible Geological Carbon Dioxide Storage Projections Require Updated Cost and Geological Potential Assumptions
| Iain de Jonge-Anderson et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-08-10
Climate models need realistic assumptions about storage capacity, costs, permitting, infrastructure, and deployment rates when projecting large-scale geological carbon storage.
12. Probabilistic CO2 Storage Capacity Appraisal of the Greensand Project in the Depleted Nini Oil Field
| Geological storage research team | Fuel | 2026-06-01
Reservoir modeling of Denmark's Greensand project assesses uncertainty in storage capacity, migration, pressure behavior, and long-term containment.
13. CO2 Subsurface Mineral Storage by Its Co-Injection With Recirculating Water
| Eric H. Oelkers et al. | Nature | 2026-03-25
Recirculating subsurface water can allow carbon dioxide to mineralize in reactive rocks without requiring the very large external water supply used by some mineral-storage approaches.
14. On-Site Dissolved-Gas Analysis and Electric-Resistivity Tomography as New Tools to Trace CO2 Mineral Sequestration in Aquifers
| Matthias S. Brennwald et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-03-05
Researchers examine monitoring techniques for tracking dissolved carbon dioxide injected into a deep basalt aquifer in Iceland.
15. Bridging Mechanisms and Materials to Scale CO2 Mineralization for Carbon Storage
| Liming Huang et al. | Nature Reviews Materials | 2026-03-04
Scaling carbon mineralization requires faster reaction rates, better understanding of mineral interfaces, appropriate feedstocks, and economical process engineering.
16. Maximizing CO2 Storage Capacity in Depleted Oil Reservoirs: Cuu Long Basin, Vietnam
Reservoir simulations compare injection strategies intended to increase permanent underground carbon dioxide storage in a mature Vietnamese oil field.
17. CO2 Storage Evaluation Combined With Oil Recovery in Depleted Gulf of America Reservoirs
| Reservoir engineering research team | International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control | 2026-01
The study models strategies designed to combine carbon dioxide storage with enhanced oil recovery while explicitly maximizing retained carbon.
18. Economically Viable Geological CO2 Storage From Direct Air Capture Has Critical Threshold of CO2 Concentration
| Le Zhang et al. | Communications Engineering | 2025-07-15
The economics of injecting carbon captured directly from air depend partly on carbon dioxide concentration because dilute streams require additional compression and handling.
19. Advanced Workflow for Time-Lapse Seismic Monitoring of CO2 Storage in Saline Aquifers
| Yanjiao Dong et al. | Scientific Reports | 2025-07-01
Repeated seismic imaging can track movement of injected carbon dioxide and help verify containment in deep saline formations.
20. Challenges and Opportunities of CO2 Storage in Depleted Shallow Gas Reservoirs in Alberta
| Researchers studying the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin | Fuel | 2025-02-01
The study evaluates containment, pressure, leakage risk, and storage efficiency in depleted shallow natural-gas reservoirs.
21. National Climate Strategies Show Inequalities in Global Development of Carbon Dioxide Geological Storage
Countries differ greatly in geological resources, technical capacity, financing, and policy readiness for developing geological carbon-storage infrastructure.
22. Carbon Dioxide Storage in Depleted Gas Reservoirs in Northeastern Alberta
| Research team evaluating Alberta reservoirs | Carbon Capture Science & Technology | 2025
Researchers rank depleted gas fields according to storage capacity, containment, injectivity, and other geological constraints.
23. Assessing CO2 Storage Potential in a Structurally Complex Depleted Gas Reservoir, Offshore South Africa
| Offshore reservoir research team | Carbon Capture Science & Technology | 2025
Researchers examine how faults, geological heterogeneity, injectivity, and containment influence offshore storage capacity.
24. Carbon Mineralization
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | 2024-08-01
Carbon dioxide can react with calcium-, magnesium-, and iron-rich rocks to form solid carbonate minerals capable of storing carbon for geological timescales.
25. Utilization of Depleted Heavy Oil Reservoirs for Carbon Dioxide Storage and Sequestration
| Reservoir science research team | International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control | 2022-09
Residual heavy-oil components may adsorb injected carbon dioxide and contribute to long-term storage within depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs.
26. Geologic Carbon Sequestration
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | 2022-03-03
This USGS overview illustrates how captured carbon dioxide can be compressed and injected into porous rock formations beneath impermeable sealing layers.
27. Carbon Dioxide Storage Through Mineral Carbonation
| Sandra Ó. Snæbjörnsdóttir et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2020-01-20
Mineral carbonation can permanently convert carbon dioxide into stable carbonate minerals in reactive rocks such as basalt and peridotite.
28. Rapid CO2 Mineralisation Into Calcite at the CarbFix Storage Site
| Sandra Ó. Snæbjörnsdóttir et al. | Nature Communications | 2019
Measurements from Iceland's CarbFix project demonstrate rapid conversion of injected carbon dioxide into stable carbonate minerals.
29. CO2 Storage in Depleted Oil and Gas Fields in the Gulf of Mexico
| Offshore carbon-storage researchers | International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control | 2018-05
The study assesses carbon dioxide storage capacity across hundreds of depleted offshore reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico.
30. CO2 Storage in Depleted Gas Reservoirs: Effect of Residual Gas Saturation
| Researchers in petroleum reservoir engineering | Petroleum | 2018-03
Residual natural gas can substantially influence carbon dioxide injectivity, pressure buildup, trapping mechanisms, and overall storage capacity.
31. CO2 Storage in Depleted or Depleting Oil and Gas Fields: What Can We Learn From Existing Projects?
| CCS project researchers | Energy Procedia | 2017-07
Existing projects provide lessons about pressure management, well integrity, infrastructure reuse, monitoring, and long-term containment.
32. The Concept of Geologic Carbon Sequestration
| Douglas W. Duncan and Eric A. Morrissey | U.S. Geological Survey | 2011-03
Geologic carbon sequestration stores carbon dioxide in deep geological formations so that it does not enter or return to the atmosphere.
33. CO2 Storage in a Depleted Gas Field: The CO2CRC Otway Project
| CO2CRC researchers | International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control | 2011
Australia's Otway Project provides field-scale experience with injecting and monitoring carbon dioxide in a depleted natural-gas reservoir.
34. Permanent Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Geological Reservoirs by Mineral Carbonation
| Jürg M. Matter and Peter B. Kelemen | Nature Geoscience | 2009-11-08
The study examines how reactions between carbon dioxide and calcium- or magnesium-bearing silicate rocks could provide secure long-term carbon storage.
35. Carbon Storage FAQs
| National Energy Technology Laboratory | U.S. Department of Energy | n.d.
DOE identifies deep saline formations, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams, basalt formations, and organic-rich shales as potential geological carbon-storage environments.
Forest Carbon Storage and Forest Management
36. No Single Rule Explains How Climate Affects Carbon Storage in Tropical Forests
| María Uriarte and Marcia Macedo | Nature | 2026-08-12
Tropical forests differ greatly in biomass and carbon storage, with regional climate relationships proving more complicated than a single global rule.
37. Continuous Cover Forestry for Carbon Sequestration: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Directions
| Norul Sobuj, Matthias Peichl and Arne Pommerening | Forest Ecology and Management | 2026-07-15
Maintaining continuous forest cover may increase carbon stored in tree biomass, understory vegetation, and soils while avoiding losses associated with intensive harvesting.
38. Natural Forest Expansion Is a Larger Carbon Sink Than Secondary Forests in Moist Tropics
| Yihang Zhang et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2026-06-04
Natural expansion of forests into previously nonforested areas can contribute substantially to tropical carbon uptake and may differ from carbon accumulation in conventional secondary forests.
39. Forest Carbon Protocols Underestimate Climate-Driven Carbon Loss Risks
| Chao Wu et al. | Nature | 2026-05-20
Forest carbon-credit systems may underestimate the probability that drought, wildfire, insects, and other climate-driven disturbances will reverse stored carbon.
40. Revised Estimates of Forest Carbon Sequestration Reveal the True Sink Capacity of Japanese Forests
| Forest carbon research team | Science of the Total Environment | 2026-05-15
Direct inventory measurements suggest Japanese forests absorb considerably more atmospheric carbon than some previous national estimates indicated.
41. Forest Connectivity Boosts Carbon Recovery in Regenerating Atlantic Forests
| Thais M. Rosan et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-04-09
Better-connected regenerating forests can recover aboveground carbon more effectively than isolated forest fragments.
42. Cascading Wood Use Into Bioenergy With Carbon Capture and Storage
| George Bishop et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-03-18
Combining wood-product use with bioenergy and carbon capture could extend carbon storage when forest carbon stocks are maintained.
43. Study Reveals Striking Carbon Advantage in Old-Growth Forests
| Stanford University | Stanford Report | 2026-03
Research comparing old-growth and managed boreal forests finds especially large differences in soil carbon, highlighting the storage value of undisturbed forests.
44. Biotic and Abiotic Drivers of Biomass Carbon Storage in Peri-Urban Forests in Burkina Faso
| Larba Hubert Balima et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-02-16
The study investigates how vegetation characteristics and environmental conditions influence carbon stored in peri-urban forest biomass.
45. Charting Our Forest Future: National Supply Curves for Forest-Based CO2 Mitigation
| Alice Favero and Kemen G. Austin | npj Climate Action | 2026-01-14
Researchers estimate the potential and economic cost of additional forest carbon sequestration across more than 200 countries.
46. Tropical Forest Carbon Sequestration Accelerated by Nitrogen
| Wenguang Tang et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-01-13
Experimental nutrient additions show that nitrogen availability can influence the rate at which recovering tropical forests accumulate carbon.
47. Enhanced Forest Carbon Gains From Stronger Protection in China’s Protected Areas
| Research team studying Chinese protected areas | Nature Communications | 2026
Strongly protected forests in China contain greater carbon stocks than comparable unprotected forests and could retain additional carbon under future climate scenarios.
48. Using Sentinel 2A and Landsat 8 Imagery to Assess Changes in Forest Carbon Storage
| Bingjie Li et al. | Scientific Reports | 2025-10-27
Satellite imagery provides a method for tracking changes in forest biomass and associated carbon storage across landscapes.
49. Newly Established Forests Dominated Global Carbon Sequestration Change Induced by Land-Cover Conversions
| Dailiang Peng et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-07-17
Newly established forests accounted for a major portion of changing terrestrial carbon sequestration associated with land-cover transitions.
50. Estimating Forest Aboveground Carbon Sink Based on Landsat Time Series
| Kun Yang et al. | Scientific Reports | 2025-01-02
Landsat observations can be used to quantify forest carbon accumulation and investigate how climate influences aboveground carbon sinks.
51. Hedging Our Bet on Forest Permanence for the Economic Viability of Climate Targets
| Christoph Müller et al. | Nature Communications | 2025
Increasing disturbance from climate change and human activity can threaten the permanence of carbon stored in forests.
52. Fungal Community Composition Predicts Forest Carbon Storage at a Continental Scale
| Mark A. Anthony et al. | Nature Communications | 2024-03-16
Forest fungal communities are associated with large-scale differences in ecosystem carbon storage and may help explain variation among forests.
53. Forest Carbon Storage in the Western United States: Distribution, Drivers, and Trends
| Jazlynn Hall et al. | Earth's Future / U.S. Forest Service | 2024
Western U.S. forests contain important carbon stocks but face growing risks from drought, wildfire, and other disturbance regimes.
54. Maximizing Carbon Sequestration Potential in Chinese Forests Through Optimal Management
| Forest carbon modeling research team | Nature Communications | 2024
Forest inventories and ecosystem modeling indicate that optimized management and wood-product storage could substantially increase China's forest-sector carbon sink.
55. Biochar Utilization as a Forestry Climate-Smart Tool
| Carlos Rodriguez Franco et al. | U.S. Forest Service / Sustainability | 2024
Converting forest biomass residues to biochar can shift carbon into a comparatively persistent terrestrial pool while providing soil and forest-management benefits.
56. Constraints and Enablers for Increasing Carbon Storage in the Terrestrial Biosphere
The potential for additional terrestrial carbon storage depends on ecological constraints as well as economic, social, and governance conditions.
57. Soil Health Assessment of Forest Soils
| Deborah S. Page-Dumroese et al. | U.S. Forest Service | 2021
Forest soil organic matter supports ecosystem productivity while functioning as a significant terrestrial carbon reservoir.
58. Global Mitigation Potential of Carbon Stored in Harvested Wood Products
Wood products can continue storing carbon after timber harvest, creating a carbon pool whose size depends on production, use, trade, and product lifetimes.
59. Carbon Stocks in Tree Biomass and Soils of German Forests
| Nicole Wellbrock et al. | Central European Forestry Journal / FAO AGRIS | 2017
German forest inventories show that substantial carbon stocks occur in both tree biomass and forest soils.
60. Effects of Forest Management on Productivity and Carbon Sequestration: A Review and Hypothesis
| Forest ecosystem researchers | U.S. Forest Service | 2015
Managed and unmanaged forests differ in carbon allocation, biomass stocks, and soil carbon dynamics, creating important tradeoffs for forest climate strategies.
61. Regional and Forest-Level Estimates of Carbon Stored in Harvested Wood Products
| Nathaniel Anderson et al. | U.S. Forest Service General Technical Report | 2013
Carbon accounting for wood products can extend forest carbon inventories beyond standing trees to lumber and other products remaining in use or disposal sites.
62. Estimates of Carbon Stored in Harvested Wood Products From the U.S. Forest Service Northern Region
| Keith D. Stockmann et al. | Carbon Balance and Management / U.S. Forest Service | 2012
The study reconstructs more than a century of carbon stored in harvested wood products originating from national forests in the northern United States.
63. Carbon Sequestration in Harvested Wood Products
| Kenneth E. Skog | U.S. Forest Service | 2011
National greenhouse-gas accounting includes carbon retained in harvested wood products alongside living forest biomass, soils, litter, and dead wood.
64. A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World's Forests
| Yude Pan et al. | Science / U.S. Geological Survey | 2011
Global forest inventories indicate that forests collectively represent a large continuing carbon sink despite substantial emissions from tropical deforestation.
65. To Manage or Not to Manage: The Role of Silviculture in Sequestering Carbon
| Robert F. Powers, Carl N. Skinner and Jianwei Zhang | U.S. Forest Service | 2010
Silvicultural choices influence the amount of carbon retained in forests, forest soils, harvested biomass, and long-lived wood products.
66. Increasing Carbon Storage in Intact African Tropical Forests
| Simon L. Lewis et al. | Nature | 2009
Long-term monitoring across African tropical forests documented increasing aboveground tree carbon stocks during the late twentieth century.
67. Old-Growth Forests as Global Carbon Sinks
| Sebastiaan Luyssaert et al. | Nature | 2008-09-11
Old forests can continue accumulating carbon for centuries rather than becoming carbon-neutral ecosystems simply because they reach advanced age.
68. Future Carbon Storage in Harvested Wood Products From Ontario's Crown Forests
| Jiaxin Chen et al. | Canadian Journal of Forest Research / U.S. Forest Service | 2008
Modeling shows how harvest rates, product lifetimes, landfills, energy use, and decomposition affect future carbon stocks in wood products.
69. Soil Carbon
| Charles H. Perry and Michael C. Amacher | U.S. Forest Service | 2007
More than half of the carbon stored in many forest ecosystems can occur in soils rather than standing tree biomass.
70. Soil Carbon Sequestration and Forest Management: Challenges and Opportunities
| Coeli Hoover | U.S. Forest Service | 2003
Forest harvesting, regeneration, fertilization, and other management practices can alter soil carbon stocks, although responses vary substantially among ecosystems.
71. Carbon Trends in U.S. Forestlands: A Context for the Role of Soils in Forest Carbon Sequestration
| Linda S. Heath, James Smith and Richard Birdsey | U.S. Forest Service | 2003
Forest soils represent a major component of U.S. forest carbon stocks and must be included in assessments of the national forest carbon sink.
72. Fire and Fire-Suppression Impacts on Forest-Soil Carbon
| Deborah S. Page-Dumroese, Martin F. Jurgensen and Alan E. Harvey | U.S. Forest Service | 2003
Fire severity, fire exclusion, harvesting, and site preparation can alter the amount and persistence of carbon stored in forest soils.
73. Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Urban Trees in the USA
| David J. Nowak and Daniel E. Crane | Environmental Pollution / U.S. Forest Service | 2002
Urban forests collectively store substantial quantities of carbon and continue to sequester additional carbon as trees grow.
74. Present and Potential Roles of Forests in the Global Climate Change Debate
| Sandra Brown | FAO Unasylva | 1996
Forest carbon management can increase storage in vegetation, soils, regenerating forests, plantations, agroforestry systems, and durable wood products.
75. Forest Carbon Management Adaptation Menu
| USDA Climate Hubs | USDA | n.d.
Forest managers can use adaptation practices to protect existing carbon stocks and sustain future sequestration as climate-related disturbances increase.
76. Reduce Impacts to Soils and Nutrient Cycling
| USDA Climate Hubs | USDA | n.d.
Retaining woody material, limiting soil disturbance, and restoring vegetation can help maintain forest-soil carbon pools following management activities.
77. Better Forests, Better Cities: Climate
| World Resources Institute | WRI | n.d.
Protecting intact forests preserves large existing carbon stocks while avoiding emissions associated with deforestation and forest degradation.
78. Carbon Storage and Sequestration
| Natural Capital Project | Stanford University | n.d.
The InVEST carbon model estimates carbon stored in aboveground biomass, belowground biomass, soils, and dead organic matter across landscapes.
79. Maintenance of Forest Contribution to Global Carbon Cycles
| University of California, Davis | Sustainability Indicators | n.d.
Forest carbon accounting includes living vegetation, roots, dead organic matter, soil, and harvested wood products.
80. Climate Change: Carbon Sequestration Rate
| University of California, Davis | Sustainability Indicators | n.d.
Carbon sequestration rates can be assessed using forest inventories, plot measurements, satellite observations, and changes in terrestrial carbon stocks.
Soil Carbon, Agriculture, Biochar, and Enhanced Weathering
81. Effects of Cropland Conversion Into Masson Pine Plantation and Leaf-Use Mulberry Orchard on Soil Carbon Pools
| Guantao Chen et al. | Frontiers in Soil Science | 2026-08-19
Converting cropland to Masson pine substantially increased particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon compared with continued cropping or mulberry cultivation.
82. Coffee Agroforestry, Soil Carbon, and Restoration of a Tropical Afromontane Rainforest
| Maria T. Cossa et al. | Frontiers in Soil Science | 2026-08-18
Coffee agroforestry can retain substantial soil carbon but does not necessarily reproduce the carbon dynamics of naturally regenerating or mature tropical forests.
83. Development and Evaluation of Biochar Formulated Fertilizers for Climate-Smart Sustainable Crop Production
| Alemayehu K. Shembo et al. | Frontiers in Soil Science | 2026-08-11
Biochar-based fertilizers seek to combine nutrient delivery with the long-term soil carbon-storage advantages associated with stable biochar carbon.
84. Declines in Organic Matter Persistence With Increased Soil Carbon
| Guang Zhao et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-07-07
Greater soil carbon concentration does not automatically imply greater persistence, emphasizing the need to distinguish carbon quantity from carbon longevity.
85. Global Patterns of Stabilized Soil Organic Carbon and Their Potential Implications for Climate Mitigation
| Zhaoxin Li et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-05-18
Mapping mineral-stabilized soil organic carbon identifies where especially persistent soil carbon occurs and where additional durable storage may be possible.
86. Effects of No-Tillage, Mulching, Drip Irrigation and Nitrogen Fertilization on Soil Carbon Sequestration
| Agricultural soil research team | Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment | 2026-04-15
Meta-analysis indicates that practices including no-tillage and straw mulching can increase soil organic carbon under suitable dryland farming conditions.
87. Soil Organic Carbon Stocks After Ten Years of Reduced Tillage, Compost and Mulch Application
| Wiebke Niether et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-03-05
A decade-long organic farming experiment evaluates whether reduced tillage, compost, and mulch can produce measurable increases in agricultural soil carbon stocks.
88. Enhanced Weathering and Biochar Co-Deployment Boosts CO2 Sequestration
| Soil carbon and weathering research team | Geoderma | 2026-02
Combining crushed reactive rock with biochar can alter soil chemistry and potentially increase long-term mineral and organic carbon storage.
89. Organic Amendment Increases Soil Carbon Sequestration by Altering Carbon Stabilization Pathways Within Soil Aggregates
| Shihao Ma et al. | Soil and Tillage Research | 2026-02
Biochar and manure can enhance soil carbon stabilization by changing how organic carbon is distributed and protected within soil aggregates.
90. Effect of Type of Farming Practices on Soil Carbon Sequestration and Crop Yield
| El-Sayed Khater et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-01-29
Different agricultural management systems can alter soil organic carbon stocks while also affecting crop productivity.
91. Using Litterfall Nets to Study Enhanced Rock Weathering
| Isabella L. Steeley | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2026-01-21
Field measurements are being used to determine whether applying crushed rock can increase both geochemical carbon removal and ecosystem carbon storage.
92. Biochar Boom-and-Bust Cycle
| Luciano Gristina and Riccardo Scalenghe | Nature Sustainability | 2026-01-12
The article examines enthusiasm surrounding biochar as both a soil amendment and a potentially durable form of carbon storage.
93. Uncertainties of Enhanced Rock Weathering for Climate-Change Mitigation
| Enhanced-weathering research team | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2026
The review examines uncertainties involving rock supply, weathering efficiency, ecosystem impacts, carbon accounting, and large-scale deployment.
94. Scaling Up Enhanced Rock Weathering for Equitable Climate Change Mitigation
| Enhanced-weathering research team | Communications Sustainability | 2026
Global deployment scenarios indicate that enhanced rock weathering could become a substantial carbon dioxide removal method if adoption expands.
95. Microbiome Manipulation and Enhanced Weathering Influence Tree Growth in Reforestation
| Reforestation research team | Communications Sustainability | 2026
A large field experiment tests whether silicate-rock additions and soil microbial manipulation can increase tree growth and forest carbon accumulation.
96. Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling Enhanced Weathering for Carbon Dioxide Removal
| David J. Beerling et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2025-09-23
Large-scale enhanced weathering depends on suitable rock supplies, transportation, agricultural adoption, measurement, environmental safeguards, and credible carbon accounting.
97. Biomass-Derived Biochar as a Sustainable Material for Carbon Sequestration in Soil
| Basanta Kumar Biswal and Rajasekhar Balasubramanian | npj Materials Sustainability | 2025-08-05
This review assesses the potential for converting biomass into relatively persistent biochar that can store carbon in agricultural soils.
98. Grazing Decreases Carbon Storage in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Grasslands
| Xiaotao Huang et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025-03-18
Grazing pressure can reduce ecosystem carbon stocks, demonstrating that land management influences the carbon-storage function of grasslands.
99. Soil Organic Carbon Under Conservation Agriculture and Conventional Fields in Northern Malawi
| Muneta G. Manzeke-Kangara et al. | Frontiers in Soil Science | 2025-02-04
Researchers compare soil carbon and related soil properties under conservation agriculture and conventional farming systems.
100. Biochar-Amended Soil Can Further Sorb Atmospheric CO2 for More Carbon Sequestration
| Xiangyang Gui et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025-01-03
Biochar may contribute to carbon storage both through its persistent carbon content and through additional interactions with atmospheric carbon dioxide in soil.
101. Leveraging Ecosystem Responses to Enhanced Rock Weathering in Mitigation Scenarios
| Enhanced-weathering research team | Nature Communications | 2025
Applying basalt to forests could combine geochemical carbon removal with additional biological carbon storage stimulated by released nutrients.
102. Soil-Based Carbon Sequestration
| MIT Climate Portal | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 2025
Agricultural soils have lost substantial carbon through cultivation, creating opportunities to rebuild stocks through improved soil management.
103. Long-Term Effects of Adding Biochar to Soils in Karagwe, Tanzania
| Baraka Ernest et al. | Scientific Reports | 2024-12-19
Long-term field measurements examine whether biochar additions increase persistent soil organic matter, soil carbon, and moisture retention.
104. Suitability of Rocks, Minerals, and Cement Waste for CO2 Removal via Enhanced Rock Weathering
| Megan Danczyk and Christopher Oze | Communications Chemistry | 2024-11-20
Different mineral feedstocks vary considerably in their ability to react with carbon dioxide and convert it into bicarbonate or carbonate forms.
105. Environmental Controls on the Efficiency of Enhanced Rock Weathering in Soils
| Hang Deng et al. | Scientific Reports | 2023-06-16
Rock type, particle size, soil conditions, water availability, and other environmental factors strongly influence actual carbon removal through weathering.
106. Destabilization of Carbon in Tropical Peatlands by Enhanced Weathering
| Alexandra Klemme et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2022-09-17
The study highlights the possibility that enhanced weathering may interact with existing soil carbon stocks in ways that reduce expected climate benefits in some ecosystems.
107. Substantial Carbon Drawdown Potential From Enhanced Rock Weathering in the United Kingdom
| David J. Beerling and colleagues | Nature Geoscience | 2022
Applying crushed silicate rocks to cropland could accelerate natural weathering reactions that remove carbon dioxide and store it as dissolved or mineral carbon.
108. Biological Carbon Sequestration
| University of California, Davis | UC Davis | 2021
Biological sequestration stores atmospheric carbon in soils, forests, grasslands, wetlands, and ocean ecosystems.
109. What Is Carbon Sequestration and How Does It Work?
| CLEAR Center | UC Davis | 2019
Carbon sequestration includes biological, geological, and technological pathways that differ greatly in storage duration and capacity.
110. Soil Carbon Sequestration and Food Security
| Johannes Lehmann | Cornell University | 2017-11-06
Increasing soil organic carbon can simultaneously improve agricultural productivity and reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
111. Size of the Prize: Establishing Soil Carbon Sequestration Potentials
| Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability | Cornell University | 2017
Research seeks to identify realistic soil-carbon sequestration potential while accounting for food production, water quality, and other ecosystem services.
112. Carbon Storage in Chinese Grassland Ecosystems
| Anna Ma et al. | Scientific Reports | 2016-02-17
Most carbon in the studied Chinese grasslands was stored below ground, particularly in the upper meter of soil.
113. Enhanced Weathering Strategies for Stabilizing Climate and Averting Ocean Acidification
| Lyla L. Taylor et al. | Nature Climate Change | 2015-12-14
Artificially accelerating silicate-rock weathering could enhance a natural carbon sink that ultimately transfers carbon into dissolved and carbonate forms.
114. Potential of Carbon Storage in Major Soil Types of the Miombo Woodland Ecosystem, Tanzania
| H. B. Shelukindo et al. | FAO AGRIS | 2014
Different Miombo woodland soil types vary significantly in their capacity to accumulate and preserve soil organic carbon.
115. Soil Carbon Sequestration
| USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service | NRCS | 2011
Soil organic carbon is one of the world's largest terrestrial carbon reservoirs and varies substantially among croplands, forests, rangelands, and other land uses.
116. Soil Carbon Sequestration and Changes in Fungal and Bacterial Biomass Following Incorporation of Forest Residues
| Matt D. Busse et al. | Soil Biology & Biochemistry / U.S. Forest Service | 2009
Incorporating woody residues alters microbial communities and may increase the amount of carbon retained in forest soils.
117. Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse Effect
| Rattan Lal and Ronald Follett | USDA Agricultural Research Service | 2009
Agricultural management can restore a portion of historical soil carbon losses while improving multiple soil ecosystem services.
118. Carbon Sequestration and Rangelands: A Synthesis of Land Management and Precipitation Effects
Rangeland carbon sequestration depends on precipitation, grazing practices, vegetation management, and changes in soil organic matter.
119. Soil Carbon Sequestration Impacts on Global Climate Change and Food Security
| Rattan Lal | Science | 2004-06-11
Restoring carbon depleted from agricultural soils can contribute to climate mitigation while improving soil structure, fertility, and crop productivity.
120. Carbon Sequestration in Dryland Soils
| Food and Agriculture Organization | FAO | 2004
Soils constitute one of Earth's largest terrestrial carbon reservoirs, with management practices capable of influencing the balance between carbon inputs and losses.
121. Carbon Storage by Introduced Deep-Rooted Grasses in the South American Savannas
| M. J. Fisher et al. | Nature | 1994-09-15
Deep-rooted pasture grasses can transfer and store substantial quantities of organic carbon deeper in tropical savanna soils.
122. Soil Carbon Storage
| Nature Education | Scitable | n.d.
Soil carbon sequestration occurs when atmospheric carbon captured by plants becomes incorporated into soil organic matter and remains stored there.
123. NRCS Climate-Smart Mitigation Activities
| Natural Resources Conservation Service | USDA | n.d.
Crop rotations, no-till, perennial vegetation, compost, and biochar are among practices that may increase agricultural carbon sequestration.
124. Soil Organic Matter Properties and Carbon Sequestration
| Lehmann Lab | Cornell University | n.d.
Long-term soil carbon persistence depends heavily on interactions with minerals, microorganisms, and environmental conditions rather than intrinsic chemical resistance alone.
125. Soils: Natural and Working Lands
| Cornell University | Natural and Working Lands | n.d.
Reduced tillage, retaining crop residues, and other soil-health practices can increase carbon stocks, although some gains can be reversed if management changes.
Peatlands, Wetlands, and Floodplain Carbon
126. Mechanical Thresholds Constrain Global Peatland Carbon Accumulation
| Adilan W. Mahdiyasa et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-08-08
Physical and mechanical properties of peat may place limits on how much carbon peatlands can accumulate over very long timescales.
127. Temperate Wetlands Lose Climate-Cooling Capacity Under Warming
| Shizhou Ma et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-06-25
Warming can shift the balance between carbon dioxide sequestration and methane emissions, weakening the net climate benefit of some temperate wetlands.
128. Progressive Release of Long-Stored Carbon From Tropical Peatland Disturbances
| Jun Koarashi et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-05-27
Drainage and fire can mobilize carbon that accumulated in tropical peatlands over centuries to millennia.
129. Enhanced Organic Carbon Burial in Rewetted Wetlands Precedes Long-Term Stabilization
| Purbasha Mistry et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2026-03-27
Rewetting previously drained wetlands can quickly restart organic-carbon burial even though rebuilding the full historical carbon stock requires much longer.
130. Warming Enhances Soil Carbon Accumulation in Boreal Sphagnum Peatlands
| Yunpeng Zhao et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2026-02-09
Sphagnum-dominated peatlands may respond differently to warming than forests and tundra, with experiments showing increased carbon accumulation under some warming conditions.
131. Beyond the Forests: Peatlands as Overlooked Carbon Stores in Coastal British Columbia
| Hanna Rae Martens and Juergen Kreyling | Scientific Reports | 2026
Coastal peatlands can contain exceptionally high belowground carbon stocks and may store more carbon per unit area than adjacent forests.
132. Persistent Organic Carbon Storage in River Floodplains Over Millennia
| Floodplain carbon research team | Nature Communications | 2026
Arctic floodplain sediments can preserve organic carbon for thousands of years, revealing an underappreciated long-term terrestrial storage mechanism.
133. Carbon Storage in Coastal Wetlands
| Caroline L. Peacock | Nature Geoscience | 2025-09-10
Reactive iron minerals may stabilize organic matter in coastal sediments, strengthening a long-lasting carbon-storage mechanism sometimes called the rusty carbon sink.
134. Two Decades of Improved Wetland Carbon Sequestration in Northern Mid-to-High Latitudes Are Offset by Tropical and Southern Declines
| Junjie Li et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2025-07-22
Global wetland carbon uptake has changed unevenly, with increasing sequestration in northern regions partly offset by declines elsewhere.
135. A Synthesis of Freshwater Forested Wetland Soil Organic Carbon Storage
| Wetland carbon research team | U.S. Geological Survey | 2025-04-07
A global literature synthesis shows that freshwater forested wetlands represent a substantial but frequently undercounted soil-carbon reservoir.
136. A Synthesis of Freshwater Forested Wetland Soil Organic Carbon Storage
| Yadav Sapkota et al. | Frontiers in Forests and Global Change | 2025-04-07
Global analysis demonstrates that freshwater forested wetlands contain large soil organic-carbon stocks that are frequently omitted from carbon inventories.
137. Revealing the Hidden Carbon in Forested Wetland Soils
| Wetland carbon research team | Nature Communications | 2024
Conventional maps can greatly underestimate soil carbon where forest canopies obscure wetlands, leaving large stores of "cryptic carbon" unaccounted for.
138. Carbon Storage in Wetlands of the United States
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2023
National Wetland Condition Assessment data provide field-based estimates of carbon stored in wetland soils across the United States.
139. Carbon Storage in Wetlands of the United States: Comparing 2011 and 2016 Assessments
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2023
Repeated national surveys make it possible to examine the distribution and change of carbon stocks across different types of U.S. wetlands.
140. Rapid Expansion of Northern Peatlands and Doubled Estimate of Carbon Storage
| Jonathan E. Nichols and Dorothy M. Peteet | Nature Geoscience | 2019-10-21
Reassessment of peatland development substantially increased estimates of the amount of carbon accumulated in northern peatlands since the last glacial period.
141. Wetland Carbon Storage Controlled by Millennial-Scale Variation in Relative Sea-Level Rise
| Kerrylee Rogers et al. | Nature | 2019-03-06
Long-term sea-level history affects the space available for sediment accumulation and therefore the amount of carbon that coastal wetlands can store.
142. Modeling Organic Carbon Loss From a Rapidly Eroding Freshwater Coastal Wetland
| Coastal wetland research team | Scientific Reports | 2019
Coastal erosion can eliminate wetland carbon stocks and turn areas that once accumulated carbon into net carbon sources.
143. Tidal Wetland Resilience to Sea-Level Rise Increases Their Carbon Sequestration Capacity in the United States
| Coastal wetland research team | Nature Communications | 2019
Tidal wetlands may continue accumulating carbon under rising seas where sediment supply and landscape conditions allow wetlands to persist.
144. Age, Extent and Carbon Storage of the Central Congo Basin Peatland Complex
| Greta C. Dargie et al. | Nature | 2017-01-11
Discovery and mapping of extensive Congo Basin peat deposits revealed one of the world's largest tropical peatland carbon reservoirs.
145. Carbon Storage and Release in Indonesian Peatlands Since the Last Deglaciation
| René Dommain et al. | Quaternary Science Reviews | 2014-08-01
Indonesian peatlands accumulated large carbon stocks over thousands of years but land disturbance can transform these long-term sinks into emission sources.
146. A Database and Synthesis of Northern Peatland Soil Properties and Holocene Carbon and Nitrogen Accumulation
| Rebecca A. Loisel et al. | The Holocene / USGS | 2014-07-03
Hundreds of peat cores document the magnitude and long-term accumulation rates of carbon stored across northern peatlands.
147. Global Peatland Dynamics Since the Last Glacial Maximum
| Zicheng Yu et al. | Geophysical Research Letters | 2010-07-09
Peatlands accumulated hundreds of gigatons of carbon after the last glacial period, with accumulation rates controlled by regional climate and hydrology.
148. Global Carbon Sequestration in Tidal, Saline Wetland Soils
| Gail L. Chmura et al. | Global Biogeochemical Cycles / USGS | 2003
Salt marshes and mangroves accumulate large amounts of sediment carbon and can store more carbon per unit area than many terrestrial ecosystems.
149. Northern Peatlands: Role in the Carbon Cycle and Probable Responses to Climatic Warming
| Eville Gorham | Ecological Applications | 1991-05
Northern peatlands contain enormous carbon stocks accumulated since deglaciation and are sensitive to drainage, warming, permafrost thaw, and fire.
Blue Carbon: Mangroves, Salt Marshes, and Seagrasses
150. Surface-Water Carbon Exchange From Mangroves and Responses to Global Warming
| Xiaoguang Ouyang et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-08-20
Mangrove carbon budgets depend not only on biomass and sediments but also on carbon transported laterally through surface waters, an important component for accurately estimating long-term carbon storage.
151. Global Vulnerability of Coastal Blue Carbon Ecosystems to Climate and Anthropogenic Impacts
| Jiamiao Chen et al. | Journal of Cleaner Production | 2026-08-02
Global mapping identifies differing vulnerability among seagrasses, mangroves, and salt marshes as climate and human pressures intensify.
152. Global Assessment Shows Blue Carbon Wealth Dominated by Ocean Processes and Unevenly Distributed Across Countries
| Nathalie Hilmi et al. | Communications Sustainability | 2026-07-21
Marine carbon-storage processes are distributed unevenly across national jurisdictions, creating large differences in countries' blue-carbon resources.
153. Blue Carbon Storage in Surface Sediments of Seagrasses and Mangroves for Mauritian Inventories
| Rui Santos et al. | Scientific Reports | 2026-06-25
Measurements from Mauritius quantify carbon stored in sediments beneath mangrove forests and seagrass meadows for national blue-carbon inventories.
154. The Future of Blue Carbon Under Climate Change
| Agradeep Mohanta et al. | Regional Studies in Marine Science | 2026-06
Scenario analysis investigates how sea-level rise and other climate pressures could change future global stocks of mangrove, salt-marsh, and seagrass carbon.
155. Quantification of Blue Carbon Storage in Seagrass Meadows in Lamu, Kenya
| Simangele Sithole, Cornelius Okello and Margaret Awuor Owuor | Scientific Reports | 2026-05-21
Research in the Lamu Archipelago compares seagrass carbon stocks across marine protected areas, locally managed areas, and unmanaged sites.
156. State-Wide Assessment of Mangrove Blue Carbon Stocks in Coastal Karnataka
| Mangrove carbon research team | Journal of Environmental Management | 2026-04-15
Field measurements estimate carbon in mangrove biomass and sediments across coastal Karnataka, India, providing a regional blue-carbon baseline.
157. Blue Carbon and Microplastic Dynamics in Natural and Planted Mangroves, Thailand
| Siriporn Pradit et al. | Marine Pollution Bulletin | 2026-04
Natural and planted mangroves accumulate carbon differently, while microplastic pollution may alter sediment processes associated with carbon storage.
158. Priority Questions for the Next Decade of Blue Carbon Science
| Peter I. Macreadie et al. | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2026-03-24
Scientists identify major research priorities needed to understand storage permanence, emerging blue-carbon ecosystems, restoration, measurement, governance, and carbon markets.
159. Vegetation Composition and Sediment Texture Jointly Shape Carbon Density in China's Coastal Salt Marshes
| Yan Zheng et al. | Frontiers in Marine Science | 2026-03-09
Large-scale monitoring shows that vegetation type and sediment characteristics strongly influence the distribution of carbon stored in Chinese salt marshes.
160. Blue Carbon Ecosystems and Coral Reefs as Coupled Nature-Based Climate Solutions
| Mojtaba Fakhraee | Nature Sustainability | 2026-02-06
Protecting blue-carbon vegetation and coral reefs together may produce linked climate, biodiversity, and coastal-resilience benefits.
161. Bio-Geomorphologic Effects on Blue Carbon Accumulation in Mangrove Sediments
| Qin Zhu et al. | Ocean & Coastal Management | 2026-02
Mangrove vegetation alters water flow and erosion, creating geomorphic feedbacks that determine how much organic carbon remains buried in sediments.
162. The United Nations and Global Blue Carbon Governance
| Jian He and Min Cao | Frontiers in Marine Science | 2026-01-26
International climate, biodiversity, wetland, and sustainable-development institutions increasingly overlap in their treatment of coastal carbon storage.
163. Embedding Ecosystem-Based Adaptive Management in Blue Carbon Markets
| Yan Zheng et al. | Frontiers in Marine Science | 2026-01-07
Blue-carbon markets require adaptive ecological management to protect stored carbon after credits are issued and environmental conditions change.
164. Assessing Threats and Rehabilitation Opportunities for Mangrove-Saltmarsh Blue Carbon Ecosystems
| Adam D. Canning and Norman C. Duke | Ocean & Coastal Management | 2026-01
Mapping degradation and restoration opportunities can help identify coastal areas suitable for rebuilding carbon-storing mangrove and salt-marsh ecosystems.
165. Indigenous Stewardship and Co-Management in Action: Blue Carbon From a Mangrove Ecosystem
| Micheli D. P. Costa et al. | Ocean & Coastal Management | 2026-01
Indigenous-led management demonstrates how cultural knowledge and carbon science can be combined in mangrove conservation and blue-carbon assessment.
166. A Global Dataset of Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation Rate in Coastal Ecosystems
| Coastal carbon research team | Scientific Data | 2026
The dataset compiles carbon accumulation measurements needed to compare sequestration rates across coastal wetlands and other blue-carbon ecosystems.
167. Blue Carbon in New England
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026
EPA research documents carbon reservoirs in northeastern U.S. salt marshes, seagrasses, and other coastal ecosystems.
168. Small Scale Mangrove Conservation Forests Enhance Above- and Below-Ground Carbon Sequestration
| R.H.N.S. Alwis et al. | Regional Studies in Marine Science | 2025-12-20
Even relatively small mangrove conservation areas can contain significant biomass and soil carbon stocks.
169. Blue Carbon Management Integrating Socioeconomic and Environmental Interconnectivity in Southeast Asia
| Amani Becker et al. | Frontiers in Marine Science | 2025-09-10
Effective blue-carbon conservation requires landscape-scale approaches that integrate land-use change, coastal ecology, communities, and governance.
170. The Nature of Soil Blue Carbon Varies Across Mangrove Geomorphic Settings
| Marie Arnaud et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025-09-09
Mangrove soil carbon sources, composition, and stabilization mechanisms differ among riverine, fringe, basin, and other geomorphic environments.
171. Ecological Connectivity Between Mangroves and Seagrasses Increases Sediment Blue Carbon Storage
| Coastal ecosystem research team | Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science | 2025-07-15
Connected mangrove-seagrass landscapes can store substantially more sediment carbon than isolated habitats because vegetation reduces hydrodynamic disturbance and promotes deposition.
172. The Rise and Flows of Blue Carbon Credits Advance Global Climate and Biodiversity Goals
| Shekoofeh Farahmand, Nathalie Hilmi and Carlos M. Duarte | npj Ocean Sustainability | 2025-07-10
Blue-carbon markets increasingly finance mangrove, salt-marsh, and seagrass conservation, although credibility depends on accurate carbon accounting and permanence.
173. Nonuniform Organic Carbon Stock Loss in Soils Across Disturbed Blue Carbon Ecosystems
| C. Fu et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-05-11
Disturbance does not remove coastal soil carbon uniformly, emphasizing that emissions estimates must account for ecosystem type and disturbance intensity.
174. Global Seagrass Carbon Stock Variability and Emissions From Seagrass Loss
| Johannes R. Krause et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-05-06
Analysis of thousands of soil cores refines estimates of global seagrass carbon stocks and the emissions that could result from ecosystem degradation.
175. Mapping Accumulated Carbon Storage of Global Mangroves From 2000 to 2020
| Moran Wang et al. | Scientific Data | 2025-04-01
High-resolution global mapping documents the spatial distribution and changes in carbon stored by mangrove ecosystems over two decades.
176. Permanence Risks Limit Blue Carbon Financing Strategies to Safeguard Southeast Asian Mangroves
| Valerie Kwan et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2025-01-28
Coastal erosion, sea-level rise, storms, and other risks can threaten the permanence needed for mangrove carbon-credit projects.
177. Protecting Coastal Blue Carbon Through Habitat Conservation
| NOAA Fisheries | NOAA | 2025
Conserving mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass habitats protects both their continuing carbon sequestration and the large carbon stocks already stored in their soils.
178. Blue Carbon Stocks Along the Pacific Coast of North America Are Mainly Driven by Local Rather Than Regional Factors
| Coastal wetland research team | U.S. EPA | 2025
Carbon stocks measured along thousands of kilometers of coastline vary greatly among mangroves, swamps, marshes, seagrasses, and unvegetated tidal flats.
179. Soil Carbon in the World's Tidal Marshes
| Tania L. Maxwell et al. | Nature Communications | 2024-11-26
Thousands of field observations are used to map and estimate soil organic carbon stored in tidal marshes around the world.
180. What Is Blue Carbon?
| National Ocean Service | NOAA | 2024
Blue carbon is carbon captured and stored by oceans and coastal ecosystems, especially mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows.
181. Blue Carbon and Its Importance in Tackling Climate Change
| World Bank | World Bank | 2023-11-21
Mangroves, seagrasses, and other coastal ecosystems store substantial carbon in anaerobic soils where decomposition can proceed very slowly.
182. Understanding Blue Carbon
| Michon Scott and Rebecca Lindsey | NOAA Climate.gov | 2022-09-29
Coastal ecosystems can bury carbon in waterlogged soils for centuries or millennia, making their protection important for maintaining existing carbon stocks.
183. Blue Carbon as a Natural Climate Solution
| Peter I. Macreadie et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2021
Mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses store large carbon stocks and can contribute to climate mitigation when existing habitats are conserved or degraded habitats restored.
184. The Blue Carbon Wealth of Nations
| Blue-carbon research team | Nature Climate Change | 2021
National distributions of mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrasses create large differences in the amount of coastal carbon sequestration available to individual countries.
185. The Potential of Indonesian Mangrove Forests for Global Climate Change Mitigation
| Daniel Murdiyarso et al. | Nature Climate Change | 2015-07-27
Indonesia's mangroves store enormous quantities of carbon, making avoided mangrove loss a potentially important climate-mitigation strategy.
186. Carbon Pools and Multiple Benefits of Mangroves in Central Africa
| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | 2014-04-09
Central African mangroves combine high carbon-storage capacity with fisheries, shoreline protection, habitat, and other ecosystem services.
187. Coastal Blue Carbon: Methods for Assessing Carbon Stocks and Emission Factors
| UNEP and blue-carbon research partners | United Nations Environment Programme | 2014
Standardized field methods allow carbon stocks and emissions from mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows to be measured for conservation and climate accounting.
188. Estimating Global Blue Carbon Emissions From Conversion and Degradation of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems
| Linwood Pendleton et al. | PLOS ONE | 2012-09-04
Destruction of mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes can release previously stored sediment carbon in addition to eliminating future sequestration.
189. Seagrass Ecosystems as a Globally Significant Carbon Stock
| James W. Fourqurean et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2012-05-20
Global analysis shows that seagrass meadows store billions of tonnes of carbon, much of it preserved in sediments beneath the vegetation.
190. Mangroves Among the Most Carbon-Rich Forests in the Tropics
| Daniel C. Donato et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2011-04-03
Indo-Pacific mangroves contain exceptionally large ecosystem carbon stocks, with most carbon frequently stored belowground in deep organic soils.
191. Storing Blue Carbon
| Office of National Marine Sanctuaries | NOAA | n.d.
Coastal vegetation and sediments can retain carbon for hundreds to thousands of years while also supporting fisheries, wildlife, and coastal protection.
