TeaComposition H2O
Over 350 sites around the world,
In ~ 35 countries and
Over 19,000 tea bags deployed
Habitats include:
Coastal wetlands: mangrove, tidal marshes, and seagrass
Freshwater wetlands: bogs, fens, riverine, lacustrine
Aquatic ecosystems: seaweeds, streams, ponds
About TeaComposition H2O
Wetlands are among the world’s most effective ecosystems for carbon sequestration by trapping and storing greenhouse gasses naturally. Maintenance or loss of wetland ecosystems will therefore have profound impact on the Earth’s climate.
What is missing, however, is standardized information on how carbon retention varies among wetland types
– i.e. why (and how) do some wetlands sequester carbon better than others, and thereby helping offset the atmospheric CO2 pool?
Plant litter decomposition is the key process in the early sequestration/emission stage of the carbon cycle. At the foundation, microbial soil communities dictate the fate of the carbon, whether it be sequestered carbon or carbon emitted as carbon dioxide.
TeaComposition H2O, is a global-scale analysis of litter decomposition within wetland ecosystems using household tea bags or Tea Decomposition.
The approach involves a novel, scientific technique for measuring carbon decomposition at low cost with the use of tea bags (Keuskamp et al. 2013; doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12097). Two tea types (green and red, made by Lipton) with contrasting decomposability will serve as a model plant litter to elucidate microbial carbon cycling across ecosystems and climatic regions. The focus will be (1) to track the biomass and carbon loss during decomposition, and (2) analyze the microbial communities driving the decomposition process.
The Concept
Milestones:
- December 2016: TeaComposition H2O was formed in collaboration with terrestrial-based TeaComposition led by Dr Ika Djukic (Ika.Djukic@umweltbundesamt.at)
- February 2016: TeaComposition H2O was officially launched
- June 2017: Northern Hemisphere sites launched
- December 2017: Southern Hemisphere sites launched
- January 2018: TeaComposition publishes first paper ‘Early stage litter decomposition across biomes’ in Science of the Total Environment (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
scitotenv.2018.01.012)
More Information
Sign-up is CLOSED, but keep us on your radar
Enquiries: info(at)bluecarbonlab.org , strevat(at)deakin.edu.au
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