Environmental Futures Seminar - Brooke Conroy

Organic matter accumulation is critical for carbon storage and surface elevation change in coastal wetlands. This talk explores how organic matter production influences these processes in Australian coastal wetlands. In a sediment-rich setting, the contribution of root production to carbon storage and surface elevation change was measured over two years using the root ingrowth technique. On a coral reef island, relationships between mangrove above-ground biomass, production, forest age and tidal position were characterised using field data, LiDAR data and multispectral imagery. To assess longer-term sedimentation patterns on this coral reef island, radiometric dating techniques (including 210Pb, 239+240Pu, 236U and 14C) were used and interpreted within the context of millennia of sea-level stability. This talk emphasises the importance of understanding how organic matter production varies across a tidal landscape. Doing so provides information about substrate vertical development and the resilience of carbon stores with anticipated sea-level rise this century.

Brooke is a PhD candidate in the School of Science at UOW supervised by Professor Kerrylee Rogers and Dr Jeff Kelleway. Brooke’s research spans the fields of coastal geomorphology, remote sensing and geochemistry and she particularly interested in how coastal wetlands develop across space and time.