TIME SERIES ANALYSIS FOR MONITORING SEAGRASS HABITAT AND ENVIRONMENT IN BUSUANGA, PHILIPPINES USING GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE

Mangroves are blue carbon ecosystems known to store large amounts of organic carbon in the sediments. This study is a first attempt to apply a chronosequence (or space-for-time substitution) approach to evaluate the distribution and accumulation rate of carbon in a 30-year-old (maximum age) restored mangrove forest. Using this approach, the contribution of restored or planted mangroves to sedimentary organic carbon presents an increasing pattern with mangrove age.

Due to complex root system structures, representing the impacts of Rhizophora mangroves on flow and sediment transport in hydrodynamic models has been challenging. This study presents a new drag and turbulence model that leverages an empirical model for root systems. The model can be applied without rigorous measurements of root structures and showed high performance in flow simulations, which may provide a better understanding of sedimentary processes in Rhizophora mangrove forests.

This study investigates the sea-air CO₂ exchange variabilities across the Tropical Maritime Continent between 2010–2019 using numerical model experiment. Model results suggested some periods with higher-than-usual CO₂ degassing to the atmosphere related to Indo-Pacific climatic events over the 2010–2019 course. Study conducted here may give insights about sea-air CO₂ exchange dynamics in the undersampled area that poorly represented in many climate models and global reconstruction product.

This study presents a new individual-based vegetation model to investigate salinity control on mangrove productivity. The model incorporates plant hydraulics and tree competition and predicts unique and complex patterns of mangrove forest structures that vary across soil salinity gradients. The presented model does not hold an empirical expression of salinity influence on productivity and thus may provide a better understanding of mangrove forest dynamics in future climate change.