TROPECOS

TROPECOS is bringing together members of the French scientific community who are working on the carbon cycle in coastal areas in three French overseas territories (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and New Caledonia) and at two international research facilities (in Vietnam and Brazil).

Using existing data and new field measurements from Brazil and Vietnam, the project will deploy new remote-sensing and modelling tools in tropical estuaries to accurately quantify carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions in deltas, tidal estuaries, lagoons, and river plumes. The results will reveal how emission patterns have changed over the last 20 years and will be used to simulate future emission scenarios based on the circumstances experienced by coastal areas (sea level rises, aquaculture, urban development, and water purification).

Mangrove swamps have extremely high rates of carbon storage. TROPECOS will conduct sampling campaigns of unprecedented intensity in these ecosystems, work made possible by the local expertise within the project’s consortium. The project will study the rhizosphere and remineralisation, diagenesis, and root exudation dynamics in anoxic soils at centimetric and millimetric scales. Researchers will also examine the functional roles and enzymatic activity of microbes (bacteria and fungi). This research will shed light on the global factors that maintain soil carbon storage in mangrove forests.

Coordinator: Gwenaël Abril, MNHN

Funding: €1,399,298 for 60 months