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The Healey-Driscoll Administration recently announced nearly $500,000 in grant funding has been awarded to the Massachusetts Geological Survey (MassGeo) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to develop carbon baseline data for wetland resource areas. This project will develop a Massachusetts-specific baseline to determine how much carbon wetlands absorb and release.  

“This grant will give Massachusetts clear, up-to-date baseline data of how much carbon is stored in our wetlands,” said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Commissioner Bonnie Heiple. “These data are essential for informing effective protection, restoration and investment strategies.”

Building on their existing data inventories and established workflows, the MassGeo team will develop baselines and predictive tools that will deliver guidance for both natural wetlands and managed systems, such as cranberry bogs. This work builds off work in tidal wetlands, where MassGeo scientists have pioneered novel ways of mapping salt marshes and the dynamic and carbon-rich sediments below the marsh grass. 

Jin Ho Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at UMass Amherst with MassGeo and the project’s lead scientist, will build off past work with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to characterize forest soils in state forests to help manage forests for resilience. “Current practices of estimating the carbon being stored in our wetlands, including vast forested wetlands, fail to capture the variability in carbon storage and fluxes across Massachusetts’ diverse wetland types and regional settings,” says Lee. “This knowledge gap can hinder decision-making around wetlands and associated natural resources.”

“Staff at MassGeo are thrilled to support MassDEP with information that will support sound, smart and science-based decision making regarding the Commonwealth’s natural resources,” says survey director and State Geologist Brian Yellen. In addition to the expert network at MassGeo within UMass Amherst, the geological survey team has teamed up with coastal wetlands experts at Boston University, including Lena Champlin and Wally Fulweiler, who have developed low-cost, efficient ways to measure how greenhouse gases are exchanged between wetlands and the atmosphere. The project team is especially excited about combining their expertise to support Massachusetts’ mission of protecting natural resources. The teams will exchange experience in freshwater and coastal systems, different science disciplines and direct measurements and modeling for an exciting collaboration across the state.