 A very warm welcome and good morning to all present here. Good morning to all the colleagues and participants from India. Good afternoon to people who are joining from further east. And maybe good evening to people who are across the planet and a very big thanks to them for keeping awake at this hour to join this webinar. So my name is Rupesh Bhoomiya. I'm a scientist at C4Ecraft and I dabble in wetland biogeochemistry where I work on mangroves as well as freshwater ecosystem. It is my great pleasure to welcome all the panel members, speakers, resource people who have made time to participate in this event and share their wisdom knowledge with all of us here. I will be moderating the session today and I'll be introducing all our speakers, panel members as we go along. But before that, I would like to give a brief introduction about this workshop, this conference, how it came about to be and what are its objectives and what we want to achieve from this gathering. So this mangrove conference started as a conversation between myself and Dr. Nehru Prabhakaran, who's a researcher at WII, thinking about what we can do to bring together researchers from India, the subcontinent as well as Southeast Asia and see where mangrove research is going, what are recent advances, water knowledge gaps and where future direction we can go towards. This was thought out as a platform which will promote more recent advancement, keeping in mind what are the challenges that we are facing. So briefly, our motivation was focused on shedding some light on the blue carbon ecosystems, mangrove ecosystems play an important role. And the focus was that conservation restoration of coastal ecosystem, a blue carbon ecosystem, offer excellent opportunities for nature-based solutions or excellent opportunities for nature-based solutions for climate change, but at the same time, these provide important co-benefits such as preserving coastal biodiversity, sustaining livelihoods and maintaining ecosystem services. So it was pretty clear why these ecosystems are important. It's about time we start taking them seriously, start discussing how we can enhance our understanding of these ecosystems and how we can address the challenges that are being faced by these systems. So during the three-day event, three-day conference, this is to serve as a knowledge exchange platform where these advances and trends in mangrove research within Indian subcontinent can be discussed and some information gaps can be identified. So this is not something where, this is like a unidirectional flow of information. We envision this as a platform for exchange of ideas, exchange of knowledge, and that will lead to further interactions among mangrove researchers, among practitioners, policymakers, and will result into partnerships and research collaborations between individuals as well as institutions for advancing mangrove scientific research in India and in the region. The challenges we face today in terms of climate change, in terms of disappearing biodiversity, in terms of curtailed flow of ecosystem services due to various pressures, need to be taken as a collective response. We all need to come together to identify the solutions to the challenges that we face. And we see for a graph as well as WII, the two institutions that came together for this workshop to intend that this conference serves as that platform where all of these ideas can be shared and new directions can be identified. But this three-day event is divided into three themes. Today, we will be talking about mangroves as nature-based solutions to climate change. We have an excellent lineup of speakers, researchers from India who have been working on mangrove ecosystem, focusing on different aspects of biogeochemical cycling, the carbon sequestration benefits that these mangroves provide, and how these could be a great solution, a great play a great part in addressing climate change by providing carbon sequestration as well as adaptation. So we will hear from seven speakers today, initially starting with one keynote speaker, then a couple of talks, and then a panel discussion. This will be our structure throughout this event. Every day we will have a keynote speaker followed by a couple of focus talks and then a panel discussion. To delve deeper into the topics that were discussed today. Tomorrow, on 9 December, the theme of our discussion would be mangroves for coastal resilience and biodiversity conservation. So here, we will again have a great lineup of speaker covering different aspects of coastal resilience, biodiversity conservation, the social and economic underpinnings that are important in the future. That are important in coastal settings and that can sometimes provide opportunities of addressing some of these challenges. On the last day of this event, that is 10th of December, we will have a discussion focused on more recent advances in mangrove research, sort of looking at the new horizons where more work needs to be done, where knowledge gaps lie, and where the future directions could be explored by using the collective knowledge of individuals as well as institutions coming together and addressing these challenges. We again will have a great lineup of speakers. Here on third day, we will have some international speakers who can share light on mangrove research undertaken in different areas. What we can learn from other experiences, from other research, and how we can use those to build a research program focusing on Indian mangroves. So with that brief introduction, I would like to begin our program proceedings by inviting our first speaker. Today, we have pleasure of having a director of WII, Dr. Dhananjay Mohan with us who will be opening or inaugurating this meeting by providing inaugural address. Let me briefly introduce him. He has a stellar career as an Indian Forest Service Officer. He is a 1988 H officer from Uttarakhand, Qatar, and he has been serving as Director of Wildlife Institute of India since January, 2020. Earlier, he has served as Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Planning and Finance Management and Chairman of State Fire Diversity Board in the state of Uttarakhand. Dr. Mohan has been a passionate bird watcher and naturalist for nearly four decades and has many publications on every fauna and birds. His detailed bio is at our workshop webpage and to not go in detail and save some time for his words, I will encourage everyone to go on the website and find more information about Dr. Dhananjay as well as other speakers. But here, I would like to invite Dr. Dhananjay Mohan to give our inaugural address and share his thoughts. Thank you, Dr. Dhananjay and a warm welcome. Thank you so much, Dr. Rukesh Bhumia and thank you for inviting me here today on this very, very important conference, three-day conference on an ecosystem which is I would say a magical ecosystem. This, I must first of all thank and congratulate all the organizers, C4, World Agroforestry, USAID and of course my own institution and particularly Dr. Rukesh Bhumia and Dr. Nehru Prabhakar who have taken a lot of efforts to organize this and I'm sure it's going to be a very, very fruitful three days and will definitely take mangrove conservation much ahead than what it is today. I haven't really worked in mangrove areas but I've been to many mangrove areas. I've spent time in Sundarbans which is the largest mangrove area, both the countries put together, India and Bangladesh. I've also been to Andaman's, each of them. I mean a number of mangrove areas and it's really something amazing to see mangroves. The kind of adaptations they have developed in very, very special circumstances and doing so well in those conditions which actually otherwise look quite inhospitable and they are supporting a whole gamut of biodiversity, a very unique biodiversity. I'm a bird watcher so I go to these areas to look for some birds which are unique to mangrove ecosystems. So they are very, very unique and very special. They may not be occupying a very, very large area in the world, I think just about 150 or 1000 square kilometers but I think the value they have and you will all be discussing and debating that for the next three days. So once again, thank you very much to all the organizers for organizing this and taking mangrove research in Indian subcontinent and also, I mean when we talk about the Indian subcontinent, then I mean this entire Southeast Asia is also linked ecologically, climatically. So what happens in Indian subcontinent is quite relevant to this area as well. And of course, when we talk about mangroves, I think globally we need to learn a lot from what is being done in one area from another because mangroves behave quite similarly across the world. So talking about the Indian subcontinent, India has got a very high mangrove species diversity, nearly some 45 species of mangroves out of the 70 found globally are found in India. So India definitely represents a good amount of biodiversity of mangroves. We don't have, we're a large country, but we don't have very large extent of mangrove, just about 5,000 square kilometers, which is barely 0.15% of the country's area. But I think the ecosystem services they provide and this has been proven time and again in recent times, they're definitely disproportionate to their size. They are doing much more ecosystem services than their size. So mangroves play a very crucial role in maintenance of coastal biodiversity and economy and livelihood along a huge coastline of India, some 7,000 odd kilometers long coastline. In fact, I remember long back, I think 20 years back when I went to Sundarbans and interacted with the local people as well as the managers there, forest managers. We came to know of a very interesting fact that actually after Sundarbans, the conservation was intensified, the fish catch in the surrounding area actually increased because the mangroves were acting as a nursery where the fish were breeding and moving out of the mangrove areas and actually helping build livelihoods of people in a better way in the surrounding landscape. So this is just one example. And I think in some of the recent cyclones that hit India, they're also the role of mangroves has come out very clearly as something that is very positive and that is what is helping the ecosystem and the ecosystem services around. We're aware that Sundarbans is one of the globally important mangrove regions and of course, there are other areas, Hidarkanika, Gulf of Kutch, Koringa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, another very interesting area with unique mangroves. So these are all very special areas in India which are, and most of them are now very well conserved and I think they're contributing immensely to the biodiversity conservation. We also, in India, we are very happy to share with the audience that while mangroves have been depleting in other parts of the world, in India, they've actually marginally increased in cover. So that's another thing to cheer about. And I think I'm sure in other countries also, there are efforts in this direction and we should be hearing a lot of positive news from other parts of the world as well. With its high carbon sequestration potential, mangroves are highly regarded as one amongst the nature based solutions for mitigating climate change, which is definitely the biggest problem being faced by the world right now. And this has been recognized and emphasized in the recently concluded COP26 as well in Glasgow. So over the next three days, I think the views and opinions and knowledge that you will be sharing will definitely take scientific research in conservation of mangroves to new levels and new horizons. I mean, I wouldn't end before mentioning a few very good examples, like the mangrove cell established by the Maharashtra government, Maharashtra Forest Department, which is actually helping a lot in recovery of mangroves in Maharashtra state and has already shown a lot of good results. So India can definitely be at one of the leadership positions in mangrove research and in whole of Asia. And of course, it will all be a collaborative effort with all the countries which have mangroves and which are all, of course, all of them are interested in conserving mangroves looking at their great ecosystem value. So I think today's this three day conference is definitely going to provide that platform, build bridges and take conservation of mangroves and support through research and take them to new levels. And I wish that this is a very, very fruitful three days and it will definitely help in mangrove conservation in a very big way. So once again, thank you very much for inviting me to this very important conference today. And I'm delighted to be here and I'm sure all the participants are going to give their best in these three days. And take mangrove conservation forward. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Mohan. Thank you so much for your very warm and very, I would say, encouraging inaugural address. We certainly will try to follow through and make most out of this gathering. As you rightly said, mangrove ecosystems are magical systems, not just because they have such immense biodiversity value and the services they provide, but they are very unique because they are only found in such a small area in the world. So they are magical in a sense that not many people know or see them in their lifetime, but they do get benefited by all the services these mangroves provide. So indeed, I resonate your thoughts about mangrove ecosystem. So without further ado, I would like to invite our next guest, Dr. Ravi Prabhu, who will provide the welcome address. Dr. Ravi Prabhu is a director at C4Ecraft and his title is interesting. He looks after our innovation, investment and impacts, so where all the research is making sense. During his illustrious career, he has engaged in multidisciplinary research and action in forested landscape for almost 20 plus years. He was previously senior program officer, forest and climate change with UNEP in Nairobi and he has led UNEP team that contributed to the UNRED program, which is an important, I would say, piece as a catalyst to transform to green economy in many tropical countries. Dr. Ravi Prabhu has served on numerous international initiative and committees, including the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, where he has served on the review and editorial team and the UN Millennium Project Task Force on environmental sustainability. So Dr. Ravi Prabhu brings to us a life of experience and wisdom on these forested landscapes and how conserving them is important and beneficial to the entire globe. So Dr. Ravi Prabhu, floor is yours. Thank you very much Rupesh and good morning, good afternoon or good evening to everybody online. I was actually very pleased when Rupesh asked me to speak here and I suspect it was only because I mentioned to him that while I was doing my PhD in the Andamans, every day I had to cross the mangroves around Dhani Nala in Katpur Bay and how fascinated I was. So if I hadn't been such a fan of the mangroves, I doubt he would have invited me. So like Dr. Mohan, I'm a layperson, but I like Dr. Mohan as well. I'm a big fan of the mangroves. I'm certainly not going to come here as a layperson and tell you how important mangroves are. You know that and you're gonna discuss this over these three days. So I'm really pleased that this workshop is taking place. I think the title is very appropriate. We are looking for nature-based solutions. When we take a look at what's happening to agriculture and forestry, particularly agriculture around the world or fisheries, we see a global system in crisis. Our food system is in crisis. Just today, we had the December 5th as the World Soils Day and FAO put out a report in plastics and microplastics in soils. We know this is affecting marine systems. And mangroves are caught between, as it were, a rock and a hard place between the hinterland where a lot of these problems originate and a marine system, which is on the point of tipping over. And in fact, in many of the mangrove areas, we have the phenomenon of excessive dumping of waste and dead zones. So they are both our life support and they are on life support. So I really do look forward to hearing what kinds of solutions you propose. To me, this is something that again, requires us as researchers to provide the evidence for policy change. Because only through evidence and can we start looking at systemic change. And that has to be our focus because you are not going to solve the mangrove problem by planting more mangroves or dealing with one aspect of it. It is going to require systemic change. So not just within the mangroves, but the pressures that drive change from outside that apply to mangroves. So I would encourage you to keep your view large even as you drill down on particular areas of expertise. And this zooming in and zooming out is a skill set that we as researchers have not really been taught in our universities. We've always been taught to focus in and continue to focus in until we solve the problem. The problem with that is you solve one problem but you ignore a host of others. So it is particularly pleasing that I see that we have a wide variety of different kinds of researchers and thinkers at this workshop so that we can try and connect bits of disparate knowledge to get a better understanding of the levers of change that we need within the system and without the system that are acting on the system from outside. So we need nature-based solutions because we cannot continue with high input solutions because all of them inevitably call on excessive use of fossil fuels or materials that are persistent in nature and cause problems. From a C4 aircraft perspective, we are relatively newcomers, particularly in the subcontinent to this issue. So I really want to congratulate Rupesh for being the flag-bearer here. And our recent work in Bhitarkanika and in the Andamans helps us to start catching up to the amazing work that all of you have been doing and I look forward to hearing about. In Indonesia, where my colleague, Daniel Murtyaso, has been working, we have a slightly longer depth of experience in this area. What this shows me, and that is perhaps my closing sentiment here, is that we are not going to solve complex problems on our own. We need partnerships. And if there's one thing that could come out of this workshop, it would be new partnerships for solving problems. Let's ask the right questions together. Let's form the partnerships that seek to find those answers and let's set our ambitions high. It will require systemic change and it can no longer be enough to solve parts of the problem. I go back to the 2002 tsunami and the role that Mangra was played in saving a number of systems. But I use the tsunami also as a metaphor. On that day in Thailand, not so much in India, but there were lots of tourists and I'm sure many of their children were building beautiful sand castles. And they had expected those sand castles to last the next day so that they could come back and complete them. But they built them on the beach and the tsunami wiped the sand castles and much, much more away. So that just goes to show that unless we have a perspective that goes beyond average occurrences, we are not going to be able to deal with the shocks that we are going to face in the next couple of decades. So I would urge you to keep complexity science on your radar to, that basically means working at multiple spatial and temporal scales as you try and resuscitate, save and improve the productivity of the mangrove systems that are so vital as all of you know and as Dr. Mohan just outlined. So with that, I wish you a very, very successful conference. I think this is extremely timely and thank you very much once more Rupesh in particular for inviting me to say this. It will be my small way of expressing my awe of the incredible teeming life that I witnessed every day from during 1989 to 1990 as a walk through the mangroves of Dhani Nala. Back to you. Thank you, Dr. Prabhu. This was incredible to you. You again painted the picture of Dhani Nala. And as you know, just recently I was with Dr. Nehru and I crossed that Dhani Nala. And I'm not sure whether you saw the same beauty. I believe you had seen much more magnificent strength but we did see that what was remaining and to us is very impressive and touching. So thank you also for giving us or sharing the wisdom that as researchers we need to also develop skill to not just zoom in but also step back and look at the larger picture because if we have to solve the problems we need to address all aspects of it. So with that, I would like to move on to our next part where we are inviting our next speaker, our keynote speaker for today. But before I introduce Dr. Kappuli Banerjee I'd like to mention for all of our participants who are joining remotely that for their questions and comments they can use the Q&A box. That's where we will have a small opportunity five minutes after our keynote address to entertain some of the interesting and important questions. For other comments, their impressions which doesn't really need a response they can use comment box. So we will be very much interested here what you have to say. But if this does not require a response use comment box if it's a question then use Q&A box. So with that small bit of housekeeping announcement let me introduce our next speaker. It is my great pleasure that Dr. Kappuli Banerjee would be providing first keynote address of this event. She is presently working as an assistant professor and founding head in department of biodiversity conservation of natural resources at Central University of Odisha. She has been working this position since almost a decade. Her area of specialization is biodiversity conservation with reference to coastal ecosystems, coastal pollution, climate change and carbon sequestration, aquaculture, coastal zone management and remote sensing and GIS. So quite a wide variety of skills she has. She has been recipient of several awards including the women's scientist award on department of science and technology government of India. She has served as project coordinator of Euphrates project and that Erasmus Mendes program funded by University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She's also not only been a great researcher but also a good educator and guide. She has guided 51 post graduate student about 16 MPHL students and three PhD students. Currently four other students are working with her on their research. More details about her work and research career is on our website to avoid delay and moving on to next item. I invite Dr. Kakoli of energy to share his keynote speak on blue carbon stocks in mangrove forest of Eastern India. Thank you so much and over to you Dr. Kakoli. Thank you, sir. Thank you for this nice introduction. And I welcome all the delegates on the platform today to on this very important topic. So I'll just share the screen. I hope fully it's visible now. Yes, it's full screen and good to go. Thanks. Thank you. So today I'll be discussing when we are discussing about the nature-based solutions to climate change. I'll be focusing on the blue carbon stocks in the mangrove forest of Eastern India. Now to begin with when we are talking about climate change there is a lot of temperature increase that we are already well versed with. It's a 0.9 degrees centigrade rise over the period of 140 years. Subsequently the carbon dioxide levels have also increased 1.5 ppm over the last 60 years. And when we are talking about climate change and the challenges of climate change can be overcome by the storage of carbon over long periods of time and mangroves are one of those ecosystems which can sequester three to five times more atmospheric carbon dioxide than any other terrestrial forest. And that's what just a few previous speakers were talking about. So the productivity of mangroves ranges from 3.7 to 24.1 tons per hectare, that is why. And that too in the period of less than 30 years that's the reason why we are focusing on the mangroves today. India is also a partner to this and we have pledged that we are going to reduce 33 to 35% of the emissions by 2030. And with the large population, India is the world's third largest emitter of the greenhouse gases. But in 2008, we have already signed an agreement with the National Action Plan on Climate Change where we have already taken up eight missions and under which agriculture and forest is one of the key components to discuss with. Now, when we are talking about the forestry here we are focusing on the mangroves. And as we all know that to set up this stage, it's a mangrove can be a tree, a shrub, bum, or a ground fund that we all know as per the definition. And owing to its versatility, it is a barrier against the storm and cyclonic depressions. It controls erosion. It has a biodiversity reservoir. It has a lot of medicinal properties which are yet to be explored. We are still on the move and it's a source of bioactive substances. It is helpful in the bio purification of the environment. It is also providing alternative livelihood schemes. It's a house of endangered species. And above all, it's a natural library for all of us for the environmental education. Now, owing to this characteristics of its thriving in the tidal cycle. Now, we have a diurnal cycle here every six hours and we see that the mangroves remain inside the water for six hours and six hours outside there. Now, because of its special characteristics, we know that the different forms of its, of the different diversity exists both for the faunal diversity as well as the floral diversity. And as we have said, this is what happens what we are just discussing just before but Dr. Ravi Prabhu was telling that, yes, the tsunamis can wash off. Now, this storm surges which are there, the normal trees and the sister, the normal vegetation cannot support this total storm surge when it comes to happen in the coastal areas. So it is only the mangroves who can resist us from such type of inundations. Now, if we look into the mangrove map of India, you can see that with the coastline of 7515 kilometers, we are almost having 6,749 square kilometers of area and about 60% of those mangroves lie in the eastern coast that is on the Bay of Bengal. And if you see in the world map, we all know that Southeast Asian countries are one of the leading areas of mangroves in the world. Although mangroves have been divided into two major groups in the eastern group and the western group comprising of the eastern half comprising of India, Southeast Asia, Australia, East Africa and Western Pacific and the western group comprising of West Africa, South and North America and the Caribbean countries. Now, why we are focusing so much on the mangroves? It is basically a sink of carbon. It is not a single compartment. It is the whole ecosystem as such which is sequestering carbon in the mangroves, in the tidal marshes, in the seagrasses, in the salt marsh grasses, in the sediment as well as in the water column. So what exactly is happening is the carbon dioxide that is being assimilated or absorbed by the plants in the two photosynthesis, that is the mangroves, there it is assimilated and it is stored in the form of carbon. And then the leaf liters and detritus which are falling down in the sediment compartment, they are adding to the soil organic carbon and there is a continuous interface between the sediment atmosphere, sediment water exchange and also the water and atmosphere exchange. So this continuous cycling process of the sedimentary water body as well as the plant is giving rise to a complete carbon cycling which is a new aspect which we are working right now. Now, the blue carbon initiatives that has already been taken up in 2017 by the IUCN has categorically tried to understand this global problem and they are now giving us opportunities to standardize the methods for quantifying this and myself as a partner for US, this particular standardization techniques, we are now coming up with a manual which will be floated very soon from the US. So we are trying to make a common standard for the data collection, quality control, what are the priority research areas for the carbon dynamics, the planning and management guidelines that we need to follow and as well as the pilot projects which should be taken up as we are already discussing in today's program. Now, if you look into the, if you compare the mangrove forest along with the other forest, you can see that mangroves, tidal marshes and tea grass meadows are the basic contributors that who are actually sequestering carbon to the maximum extent. And if you see the proportion, you can see that 40% and 60% proportion is there for mangroves. That means the sediment, the soil organic carbon also plays a major role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Now, this effectiveness of blue carbon has been quantified and it is almost 1030 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent for the, which is being absorbed from the atmosphere by the mangroves. It is almost 920 tons for the tidal marshes and 520 tons of carbon dioxide for the sea grass meadows. So if you see the holistic picture, we can understand what is the effectiveness of this to understand this blue carbon storage. Now, the integrated carbon observation system that is the European based pillar for the GHG observation, they have also focused on the knowledge supports right now and they are on the verge of making decision of the policy and the decision making for combating climate change. And for that, we need to have a distributed research. Just now what Dr. Ravi Prabhu was telling that just we need to have high precision, long-term observations, fascinating research to understand carbon cycle and to provide the sufficient information on the greenhouse gas and their present status. Now, when I'm talking about all these, we have what we have done, we should now focus on the study area where we have been working right now for the last 10 years of my research work in Central University of Orissa. We have been focusing on two major mangroves such as the Bitar Kanika mangrove ecosystem and the Mahanadi mangroves where we have the lower stretch. And here, as we all know that it is supporting 35 different varieties of mangroves. Now, apart from that, we have to, when we are looking in a holistic picture, we have also to concentrate on the water bodies. Phytoplankton, which are the atmospheric sink of carbon dioxide, providing almost 40% of oxygen to the atmosphere. It is 30 to 50 billion metric tons of carbon that is being fixed by these micro algae. Now, this is often overlooked. We are not taking into consideration to that much extent of working with the phytoplankton, which are also the important component of the clean development mechanism and has a very good efficiency in absorbing nutrients. Now, these are some of the pictures of the phytoplankton that we have identified. And you can find there in almost all the water bodies in and around our Indian coast. And out of that, you will be knowing that cosnodiscous, this is only species which is acting as an indicator species for any pollution levels that we have already identified and have come up with some publications as well. Now, we also have tried to understand what is the amount of carbon in those phytoplankton? And by the standard formula, we have tried to understand the amount of carbon that is present in the different plankton cells and because they are unicellular, we need to enumerate singly and then we have to understand it's on its volumetric aspect. Now, not only that, we also have mangrove associates, the seaweeds, which are edible in character and they have a lot many other biochemical properties apart from that. If you are concentrating only on the carbon aspect, we have focused on the three important species, entremorpha, catenella and ulva. And out of this, entremorpha industrialists have been found to store maximum amount of carbon with 1,100 almost approximately grams per square meters. Although they are where they are a society in nature, they are found only on the substratum, but yet these are widely usable and some of my researchers are also carrying out some new products formulation from these seaweeds, which is not yet into a commercial market in India. Of course, to some extent, we have it in Southeast Asian countries and Western countries too. Now, apart from that, we have the potrishak water, the salt marsh grass, where here also we have estimated the carbon, which has varied from 0.8 to 1.7 mega gram per hectare. So it is, I mean, we need to see that if you see that every compartment of the floral community in mangrove ecosystem are sequestering carbon. This is that we have gone for the mangroves. So we have taken up the mangrove for the as per standard protocols. We have measured the biomass of the mangroves. We have estimated the carbon in the field. Apart from that, the very important factor is, what is the ambient environment? The mangroves cannot grow anywhere and anywhere because it varies with the substratum characteristics. Every species has its own characteristics to survive. For that, we have taken the soil and water parameters with respect to pH or salinity, organic carbon texture, as well as bulk density. So, and then why we are into so much of the sediment because they are the basic inputs to the fertilization of the water because when the outwelling comes from the adjacent landmasses they fertilizes the water because of which we have a lot of amount of fisheries. And that is the basic background for the productivity of the water bodies. Apart from that, we have the crabs on the sediment compartment, which are actually the decorative wolves. And through that, we all know that through this food chain, it is reaching, this carbon is reaching to the highest tire, that is the Sundarbans, the tigers that we are having only in Sundarbans, which is the largest mangrove reservoir of having the Royal Bengal Tigers. So here, the tigers have a very different aspect of their own because they are feeding basically, apart from the wild boars and deers, they feed on these crabs and fishes because of which they are so unique in characteristics. Now, we have also tried to enumerate the biomass values. And as I have already mentioned, that with the changing characteristics of the freshwater flow, the tidal cycle, there is a difference in the biomass values. So if you see the Piter Kanika area, we have worked with five important mangrove species, Avicenia marina, Avicenia officinalis, exocheria agalocha, rhizophora micronata and xylocarpous granitum, which are the most dominant species as we have recorded with this relative abundance. And in that, you have seen that in the first case in Piter Kanika, we are getting the Avicenia officinalis biomass to be extra higher, highest in comparison to the other species. Whereas in Mahanadi mangrove belt, which is a little bit more saline area, we are getting the rhizophora dominance. But overall, if you see the lower graphs, you can see that the exocheria agalocha, which has a wide adaptability to the changing salinity environment, you have the maximum amount of the biomass or in the exocheria agalocha. Now, apart from that, when we are talking about the water component, the mangroves play a major role in regulating the pH of the water body. As we all know that the more amount of dissolved in organic carbon increases in the water body, we have the water pH decreases. On the other hand, it has a positive relationship, the soil organic carbon has a positive relationship with the dissolved in organic carbon that we have studied. We have also studied the above-ground biomass as well as the above-ground carbon and we have calculated the carbon sequestration potential and which is almost around 550 for 47 in the Piter Kanika and 363 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, but comparing the whole of Orissa and taking an average mean carbon of 124 tons per hectare, we have calculated that almost 64.8 teragram of carbon dioxide is being absorbed by these unique vegetations in the coastal state of Orissa. We have also tried to develop some regression models and we have come out with 24 linear regression models and 120 non-linear regression models where we have found out that every tree, I mean, all the five species that we have worked on has shown different type of equations for which it is very clear that, and we have this time for the first time we have done not only taking the biotic parameters, but also the abiotic parameters into consideration when we are talking about how much influence it is occurring for the biomass and carbon for both the ecosystems. So this is how we have found out that it is very, very site specific. Now, when we are talking holistically on the carbon, we have to think of that there is also a huge mangrove loss due to degradation and it's being said that if mangrove deforestation is going on, it will account for three to 19% of carbon emissions. And apart from that, we need to, so we need to focus on rightly on the three blue carbon ecosystems that we have just discussed, which needs to be conserved. And for this, we have done the land use land cover mapping of the Viterkanika mangroves and there we have come out that in the last 10 years, what we have found out is the crop lands are increasing in comparison to the dense forests. So this is an alarming picture because the livelihood patterns, just now what Dr. Rabi Prabhu was telling, we need to look into the livelihood patterns. People are now moving their livelihood from agriculture to the cropping pattern, they are cutting down for the, for getting agricultural land. But of course, when, and these are the red patches which we have marked out, you can see that these are the areas where we had almost six square kilometers of decrease in the area of the forests are, I mean, total forest, comparing all the types of forest that is present in the Viterkanika, not only the dense ones, but also the moderate forest, open scrub forests and as well the other areas. So we have categorized again, the vegetation cover as such separately and we have come out that the dense forest patches remaining unchanged, but over the last 10 years, but there is some increase of 0.06% increase by the year 2017 that we are seeing to some extent we have increased. Now this may be because of the too much of patrolling that is being done for the fuel good cutting, as well as the increased afforestation program that is being taken up by the forest department, but above all, here we have taken into consideration all sorts of forests in order to understand what is the proportion of the mangroves that is now present in the area. Not only that, we have also taken into consideration the shoreline changes. As you know that Orissa is very much prone to cyclones and we are one of the hub of cyclones for every year we have almost two cyclones. So we have tried to understand the shoreline changes and as you can see that the shoreline on the southern part of the coastal Orissa, that is particularly the Viterkanika side, there we have the Gahirmata Wildlife Sanctuary where we have the turtle nestings and India is, I mean, Orissa is having a signature species in turtle, oligarchal turtle nestings and this particular sanctuary we are losing the grounds. It is almost 211 meters of recession which has already occurred in this particular area. So if you see the transaction graph, you can see this is the amount of erosion that is taking place in the Viterkanika areas in company in the southern part rather than in the northern part of the sanctuary. So coming to the scope of future, we need to have some no move studies on the carbon dynamics. Extremely important for controlling carbon dioxide concentration. We need to know because these are all the gap areas where we have not yet worked on. The isotopic fractionation of the carbon should be done for the decomposed soil organic matter which is recognized for the variety of ecosystems and is providing the insights for the physical and biological processes which is mediating the carbon storage and the nutrient availability. Also the carbon isotopic study is needed to understand the dynamics of carbon cycle and for the development of any type of models we need to develop models specifically with respect to space and to respect with the substituent characteristics. These are some of the publications that we have already done in this. This is only for the new researchers who want to and we have come up with two important books from CSIR and Hindustan Publishing House for the recent developments and environmental postcards. These are the two major books. You can have a look on that. And lastly, I would like to thank the organizers for inviting me for this webinar. I'd like to thank the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Government of India, Institute of Forests by Diversity, Hyderabad University Grants Commission, New Delhi and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests for their financial and infrastructure help and support that they have provided for making this research a success. So thank you all. I hope I'm on time, Dr. Rupesh and over to you for the questions. Yeah, thank you, Dr. Benerjee. This was a very comprehensive and detailed presentation and such is the case with the keynote speaker that you are facing a challenge of covering a wide topic in a short duration and you did great. So thank you all. We will take one question if you can respond to that briefly and then we will move on because since we have maintained good time, let's continue this. So the question is by Dr. Vidya Arshankar and the question is, is there any measure to look at the carbon using mangroves permanently without entering into the ecosystem? So I think they are trying to see that is there a way of remotely sensing the carbon stores in mangroves? Yeah, this is a very new aspect that ISRO has already offered me for this. So actually the thing is you cannot lock the carbon using mangroves that what she has written is, there's a measure to lock the carbon using mangroves permanently. Nothing in this universe is permanent. It is a cycle that will carry on it will continue to have. So we cannot lock but one thing we can do is if you manage the land use land cover of the area and keeping the forest intact if you can provide the alternative livelihood schemes that is the only way where we can save the mangroves. Otherwise it's very difficult in the way you are asking we cannot lock the system. Yes, from remotely sensed you can do the NDVI vegetation from the remote sensing images. You can work with the EDAS Imagine software to find out what is the productivity level but of course with a ground truth verification you always need to do that. And apart from that right now no soil carbon mapping has been done in this particular area and of course there is a new aspect is that with the changing environment because as such orisa is having a lot of in the cyclones so with the cyclonic effect what is the change in the mangroves? How much of the sequestration capacity they are losing or what is their growth effects that need to be understood in the present domain. So that is very important that you should look for but we cannot lock carbon as you are saying. I mean it is a normal process of cycling. Thank you Dr. Krakuli Venerjee and my apologies for reading it wrong. So one more... I know I just read it in the question answer box. So one more thing that this workshop brought out is that my eyesight needs to be tested and I need new prescription. So another learning. Well, thank you again for such an insightful and detailed talk and there are other questions I hope we will get some chance to touch during our discussion session. So moving on to our next item. We will have a quick group photo of our technical lead. Vito is ready to take a picture of the panel members. I request everyone to turn on their video momentarily and come up with a mangrove smile so that we can take a picture and then we'll go to our next speaker. Vito, over to you. You let us know when to smile. Yes, thank you Rupesh. That's a good idea. Let's see, let's see mangrove. Is that a smile? I think it's gonna be a smile. Okay, everybody open the cam. So yeah, I think right now in account of two, let's say mangrove first and after that cheese. Mangrove cheese. Cheese mangrove probably later on. Okay, one, two, go. Smile and then that's it. Thank you. Back to you Rupesh. Thank you very much Vito. Okay, so after our first keynote speaker we have the first talk of our session. This talk is about mangrove carbon stocks from island perspective. We have heard about Andaman Nicobar Islands couple of times already in this session. And this is a great pleasure to invite Dr. P. Raghavan who has conducted his PhD research in these very islands quite recently. So like Dr. Ravi was mentioning sometime about 20 years ago or even longer, Dr. Raghavan can present and share information from much recent times. So before I pass on the floor to Dr. Raghavan I'd like to provide a brief introduction. He is a scientist in MOEF, Ministry of Environment and Forestry and Climate Change, Government of India and based in New Delhi. He pursued his PhD in marine biology from Fondicherry University. And his area of interest is taxonomy, ecology, molecular phylogenetics and biochemistry of mangroves and seagrasses. So very apt for this session. His more recent research has concentrated on conservation and management of mangroves and carbon dynamics in blue carbon habitats of India as well and he has worked on EDNA meta-parkording of mangroves. He has published many research articles more than 40, had eight book chapters and one book. So he brings us very, I would say, experienced vision of mangroves from Andaman's. And I pass on the floor to him. Over to you, Dr. Raghavan. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Vish. Is my slides are visible? Yes. Can you make them on the full screen mode? Yeah. Good. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you to all. Good morning to all. Today I'm going to share my work experience which I gathered from Andaman, Nicaragua Islands on the estimation of ecosystem carbon stock on Andaman Islands. This work I have funded by the Department of Space as a post-doctorate on fellowship at the District of Research, Katharathri and to the mentorship of Dr. Sanjeev Kumar. So before going to my research findings and other things, I would like to brief about what is blue carbon, why we have to study the blue carbon. How these blue carbon ecosystems are very much important for developing countries like India. So blue carbon as definition is very simple. Ergonic carbon that is captured and restored by emotions as well as the coastal ecosystem, particularly this vegetated coastal ecosystem is called as blue carbon. So the blue carbon vegetated coastal ecosystem means prominence mangroves, seagrass and sophomores. So even though the blue carbon definitions includes revolutions in recent times, even IPCC and in all the climate change treaties and efforts, these coastal vegetated habitats are highlighted in the recent time. The recent behind this, even though these ecosystems are very small in terms of area, they are carbon stock potential, highest carbon stock per unit area and they have a high carbon accumulation rate. For example, if you see the carbon burial rate is 20 times higher than the other terrestrial ecosystems. In addition to that, they are offering multiple other benefits, not only the carbon sequestration, they are offering many other, multiple other probe benefits like coastal production, water filtration and livelihoods, nearly 120 million people living near the mangrove areas and their annual ecosystem service in terms of monetary value use goes 33,057,000 years. When you look at, this is some of the comparison graphs. If you see the total ecosystem carbon stock of mangroves is around a thousand and a half gram of carbon per hectare when you compare with other ecosystems it is very less. The same with the carbon burial rate, the carbon burial rate also it is much higher in blue carbon ecosystems than the other terrestrial ecosystems as well as these ecosystem services in terms of monetary value is also much higher than the other ecosystems. So coming to mangroves, since my research area is on mangroves, I just give a brief about the mangroves. You know very well that mangroves are specialized in mangroves. They are growing in tropical and sub-tropical coast. The total area is around 1,40,000 square kilometer and they are in 118 countries and the global true mangrove species in a global mangrove is 84. The threshold limit is sea surface temperature at least 20 degree Celsius. Here you can see some of the peculiar adaptive features of the mangroves. So even though the blue carbon habitats are having the potential to store more carbon, they are the source of greenhouse gas emission to if these ecosystems are not properly handled or if the ecosystems are witnessing degradation. So this part is, so this ecosystem has the potential to act as a sink as well as the source. So we have to manage this ecosystem in a proper way. The current situation with the current degradation rate of mangroves is 0.2%. I can say this is a good sign when you compare the decade before the rate is around 1 to 1.2%. Now the degradation rate is decreased. So the carbon stocks are disappearing at the rate of 1.8% per year. Between 1996 to 2016 at least we lost 158.4 million tons which is equivalent to around 600 million tons of carbon dioxide. Particularly when recently the global emission of greenhouse gas from the mangrove loss is quantified and they have projected that the post of Bay of Bengal and Andaman see our hotspots for global mangrove loss as well as the emission of greenhouse gas emission, emission of greenhouse gases. These are all the global average greenhouse gas emission from the mangrove sediments if they are witnessing degradation. So in hand again the mangroves are, even though the mangroves are distributed in the tropical coast, they are most effective natural based solution at the country level rather than the global level. The main reason is their restricted distribution throughout the globe. So if any country which having a mangrove blue carbon ecosystem if they want to use this ecosystem for climate change mitigation as well as adaptation measures they have to understand the entire carbon, all the component of the carbon cycle as well as the proper estimation of the each and every component of the carbon cycle of this ecosystem is highly imperative to applying this ecosystem as a natural based solution. So coming to India, India is one country which have all the three blue carbon ecosystems. However, mangroves are most prominent blue carbon ecosystem along the Indian coast followed by sea grass and salt marshes. But sea grass and salt marshes are recent times only get much attention in terms of climate change and now the policies are making for the better conservation and management of sea grass and salt marshes in India. In mangroves the total area of mangrove cover in India is as for FSA data it is 4,975 square kilometer and it has 46 true mangrove species there are sea grasses, it is around 400 square kilometer and it consists of 15 species salt marshes it is 400 square kilometer and it has 14 mangrove species. However, the carbon storage potential of Indian blue carbon ecosystems are rarely been studied and it is in a infant stage. So after realizing this potential of these ecosystems you may know that many countries are included in their NDCs, the NDCs means it is the National Determined Contribution that is the efforts and the contribution taken by the country to mitigate the climate change as per the Paris Agreement. So far 28 countries included these ecosystems for mitigation and the 59 countries included this ecosystem for adaptation strategies. India included this for adaptation or mitigation measures, so blue carbon inventory. So even though these ecosystems are potential for carbon how is carbon need to be estimated? For this IPCC has given three tier methods. The tier one is it is based on the global average values. The uncertainty level is high more than 50 to 90%. The tier two is assessment based on the average value of the different ecosystems in the particular country. Here you can avoid the uncertainty level to minimize the uncertainty level. But the tier three, this is a highly recommended method for carbon accounting in a country or regional wise but it is highly cost effective one and at the same time it includes much more collaboration much more collaboration to make up more site specific and more site specific estimation of the carbon stocks. So this is the recent third biennial updates report submitted to United Nations in terms of climate change. So even though India is the largest greenhouse gas emitter if you look at the per capita greenhouse gas emission is around 1.96 tons of carbon dioxide which is lesser than the global average that is 6.5 tons of carbon dioxide and it is much lesser than the other developed countries. So even the, I can say that there's still the low like no carbon lifestyle in India is the major contributing factor for this. And another factor is so far India, the emission intensity of India's GDP has reduced by 24% between 2005 to 2016. So this is the, this clearly shows that how effective we are and how our natural resources are a major role in mitigating the global climate change. So these are all the methodologies even though our systems are helping in mitigating the global climate change. Still we have many research gaps. When you look at the methodology the greenhouse gas emission from the wetlands and other lands. These are all, there is no data, data is available for the greenhouse gas emission from the wetlands and other lands in India's economy. So these needs to be quantified and then only we can give the very clear picture about our blue carbon ecosystem in countries climate change mitigation and adaptation. So to addressing this research gaps, we have carried out the study at Andaman's to estimate the ecosystem carbon stock of, ecosystem carbon stock of mangroves. So in this study I have measured two component, vegetation carbon and soil organic carbon. Still because these two components are the major, representing the major ecosystem carbon. For vegetation carbon estimation, I have covered 41, 43 sites in Andaman islands and by all of them I have used followed and metric method. For soil organic carbon stock estimation, I have covered only South Andaman island. So far South Andaman island, nearly 380 soil samples were analyzed for this. And at the same time, we have estimated how this soil carbon stock is differed between the different environmental setting as well as the within the system. So this is the sampling strategy to assess the within system soil organic carbon variability. We have collected the samples in three different areas on this fringe and interior and deep interior. Fringe means it is very close to the, we can say very close to the mouth and deep interior is more than 100 meter from the mouth of the creek and deep interior means it is more than 200 meter from the mouth of the creek. So this is the assurant type. This is the assurant setting. Assurant setting means it has some permanent stream. The freshwater input will be there. You can see in this permanent and there will be some prominent creeks are present in this area. Whereas this is the open host type. Here the mangroves are directly changing the coast. So these mangroves are directly exposed to two waves and tides. Here the sampling strategy is like that fringe, interior and the landward fringe as well as the landward mudflap. So this is the vegetation carbon stock results. If you see the vegetation carbon stock, the mean above ground biomass is around 470 mega gram per hectare. The above ground carbon vegetation carbon is 225 mega gram per hectare. Whereas in below ground carbon it is 65.04 mega gram per hectare. When you compare the island wise, you can see little and the man is having higher vegetation carbon stock than the other islands. When you look at the species wise, you can see the dominant species of the isoporamacoronata, isoporapiculata and the burgueria gymnorasa, they are contributing a major contribution. In this you can see the sonoracea graffiti. Sonoracea graffiti is one of the critically endangered mangrove species, but this species contributing more fifth place in contributing the total vegetation carbon stock. The main reason is the sonoracea graffiti is a very gigantic tree. The even the diameter of the single tree, most of the trees available in Andaman is very, very mature trees. Their diameter goes more than 400 to 600 centimeter. So that is they have representing higher base area. So that will reflect the high carbon vegetation carbon stock in mangroves of Andaman. So this is the comparison of Andaman mangroves with the vegetation carbon with other mangroves. When you look at that, the Andaman mangroves are having, I can say it is more than double the amount of carbon in terms of even other ground as far as the below ground. So coming to the soil organic carbon stock, the mean soil organic carbon stock is around 331 mega gram per hectare. Soil organic carbon content is 3.94 percentage and the density, carbon density is 40.23 kilogram per meter cube and the carbon accumulation rate, carbon accumulation rate is 112.64 gram of carbon per meter square per year. So when you compare the different environmental settings, etchurin mangroves and marine mangroves, both are having almost similar soil organic carbon stock. The main reason is even though the different, even though in Andaman's different environmental settings are there, there is no perennial rivers, perennial rivers are absent in Andaman's. So there is no continuous freshwater inflow in these areas other than rain. So that's why even though two different environmental settings they behave like a same. That is the main reason these two environmental settings are having a similar organic carbon stock. Here you can see the comparison. This is the average value of accompanying all the studies. Here also you can see the soil organic carbon stock is again more than double the amount of other mangrove habitats of India. So this is the detailed comparison. Here you can see the, even though the Andaman mangroves are having more soil organic carbon stock than the other studies, I can say that the main reason is the soil border. It is not uniform. It is very from surface to 100 centimeter. If you take 100 centimeter, then you will probably get a more value. If you take only 10 centimeter studies you'll get a very minimum value. So we have to standardize these methods. Once we standardize this method, then only we can say, then only we can give the actual picture of the carbon stock in the Indian mangrove habitats. So this is the entire ecosystem carbon stock. When you come to the entire ecosystem carbon stock in South Andaman only it is around 545 mega gram per hectare which is equivalent to around 2,000 mega gram of carbon dioxide. So the present South Andaman mangroves are storing the carbon storing potential. That is vulnerability potential is 200, 2,000 mega gram of carbon dioxide equivalent. So if we disrupt any, each and every hectare of South Andaman mangroves then they have the potential to emit around 2,000 mega gram of carbon dioxide. So in that way, each and every hectare of mangroves is very essential. We have to preserve the degradation of the already existing mangroves. This is more important. At the same time, these existing mangroves have the potential of sequestering the carbon at the rate of 0.17 mega gram of carbon per hectare. This is the mitigation potential. So whenever we are going for blue carbon storage there is a two component. One is the carbon which is already available and one is the carbon which is sequestered every year. So this is more important. We have to assess the both things. So in a overall representation in South Andaman, as usual the soil of South Andaman mangroves are representing 61% of the carbon followed by above ground carbon and below ground carbon. So these are all the within system very pretty. How within the system the soil organic carbon stock is different. Even though the whole Andaman-Hirukopar and it is constant in the same climatic condition, we can find different variation between the environmental different variation in the carbon stock with reference to the micro topographical changes on the tidal fluctuation and other things. When you look at the estuarine and marine mangroves their soil organic carbon stock is almost similar. Whereas even the carbon accumulation rate is almost similar. When you see this between within the site the estuarine fringe and the estuarine interior mangroves are having more carbon stock than the estuarine fringe and estuarine fringe. Similarly the marine interior mangroves are having more carbon stock than the marine fringe. The same way the carbon accumulation rate is also different. When you look at the delta C-thatin value which gives the source, what is the source of the organic carbon in the soil, whether it is completely actonous or alectonous. Alectonous means it is a carbon which is carried from the other sources, other terrestrial carbon as well as the marine carbon. When you look at the estuarine fringe position, it is very from the depth, it is not much very with depth, but when you see the landward mud flat, here you can see the delta C-thatin value vary from minus 25 to minus 28. Since minus 25 is the signature of marine or terrestrial input, the minus 20, minus 28 per mil which indicates that this landward mud flat areas might be there, might be colonized by the mangroves in the past and it has witnessed degradation in the recent time. So not only beyond burial, mangroves are contributing major sources of dissolved organic carbon as well as the particulate organic carbon and dissolved inorganic carbon. These particularly the dissolved inorganic carbon represents more than 52% of the net primary productivity in mangrove. So the burial represents only minimum portion of the total net primary productivity of the mangrove. So we have to understand the lateral export of these other carbon fractions to understand the whole carbon storing potential of the ecosystems. So in case of mangroves, you just see the burial represents only 14% percentage of global carbon burial whereas PIC exports of present 28% of the global export and the DOC represents 13% POC is not yet known, the data are very minimum. So we have to understand each and every component of the carbon cycle in blue carbon ecosystem to use of this ecosystem for climate change mitigation of any kind of things. So last but not least, ecology is the permanent economy as said by the leader of CHIPCO movement. So instead of standing against nature, it is better than it is better to go along the nature. So we have to choose, we go along the nature or this photograph shows along the nature, this photograph shows against the nature. So we have to choose. So it is in the hands of all the citizens of the countries, those countries are consistent of this blue carbon ecosystem. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Agwan. Thank you for again a very thorough presentation, sharing with us also the global perspectives in terms of mangroves and blue carbon capability of storing sequestering carbon as well as storing carbon and also then drilling down deeper on the Andaman islands perspective. It is very good to see the research you have conducted in terms of putting the value, how much of carbon is stored per unit hectare and what is under severe risk if these areas are degraded because very often policymakers or decision makers require these kind of number hard facts while making decisions in terms of whether a particular area of mangrove has to be converted into some other land use type, what is at stake. So this kind of research is very prominent. I just want to remind all of our attendees that today's focus since it is a theme for is on blue carbon ecosystem and nature based solutions for climate change. We are focusing on the climate mitigation and sequestration kind of aspects, but tomorrow we will be discussing more on the adaptation side of things where topics like biodiversity, conservation, coastal resilience and socioeconomic aspects will be discussed more. So it's not that we are not talking about the importance, but today's theme is more on the carbon. That's why most of the talks are on that. So we have sort of run out of time. There are few questions in the Q&A box. I will encourage all speakers as well as panel members, try to answer them by typing if it is possible. We can always take them again in our discussion section, but we will like to take a short break now. We are already four minutes into that break time, but we will reconvene again at 11 a.m. India time, which is about six minutes. During this time, Vito will play some short videos, which are interesting and informative. So please see them if you can. Otherwise, take a break, grab a cup of coffee or water or stand up, stretch your legs, but we will meet again at 11 a.m. for the rest of the program. Thank you. We start our part two of today's session. We had a very productive, very insightful first session. Where we had inaugural and welcome address. And then a keynote address by Dr. Karkali Benerji and a talk by P. We'll have one more talk today, and then a panel discussion where two presentations and then a lot more discussion and sharing of ideas. So to invite our second speaker today for talk, we have with us Dr. Anirban Akhand, who is a visiting researcher in coastal estuarine environment research group, port and airport research institute Japan. His research interests are carbonate chemistry and carbon cycle, both organic and inorganic in estuaries and coast. And then he has also looked into greenhouse gases in maritime and freshwater systems and blue carbon and coral ecosystem dynamics concerning climate change. So it would be a very good second speaker of the introduction of this topic in earlier part. Dr. Anirban has obtained his PhD from faculty of sciences Jadavpur University and completed his postdoctoral research in the same school. He for his postdoctoral research, he joined port and airport research institute from May 2016 until March 21. He has more than 40 research publications and participated and delivered presentations in various national international seminar and conferences. Dr. Akhand will be talking today on biogeochemical underpinnings and associated processes in coastal mangrove forests. So a little more sort of a zoomed in version on different processes that makes these mangrove ecosystems very unique and allows them to sequester carbon. So with that, Dr. Anirban, floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Bhoomiya. Am I audible? Yes, very clearly. Okay. May I share my screen? Please go ahead. Yes, it's visible. Can you make it to the full screen mode please? Yeah. Okay. Good. Over to you. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Before beginning my presentation, I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to the organizers, especially Dr. Bhoomiya for inviting me as a speaker to this marvelous virtual mangrove conference. The topic that I have chosen for today's discussion is biogeochemical underpinnings and associated processes in coastal mangrove forests. Owing to my expertise in carbon biogeochemistry, I would like to focus mainly on underlying processes that drive the carbon biogeochemistry of the mangrove-dominated estuarine waters. Most of my works are conducted in the Indian part of Sundarbansh. Hence, I would also like to emphasize some unique biogeochemical features of Sundarbansh. As we all know that atmospheric CO2 concentration increase is bothering us since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. And in this regard, environmental scientists are desperately looking for nature-based solutions. Mangrove environments have long been recognized as the net sinks for CO2. However, the critical CO2 dynamics within this ecosystem are still researched with considerable interest. In one of my recent works, we measured the CO2 water, that is partial pressure of carbon dioxide in water with a high temporal resolution automated underwater PCO2 analyzer in the creek and estuarine waters around Dhonchi Islands of Sundarbansh. This high temporal resolution measurement enabled us to minimize underestimation or overestimation of PCO2 water because it can efficiently catch the effect of variability of tidal maxima and minima. We subsequently estimated air water CO2 flux in these sampling stations. We found that creek stations are sources of atmospheric CO2 and estuarine stations are sinks for atmospheric CO2. We compared Sundarbansh data with mangrove surrounding waters from different parts of the world and we also found that PCO2 water was significantly lower in mangrove surrounding waters in Sundarbansh than in other parts of the world. From our time series data, which is the first of its kind in Sundarbansh, you can see a distinct tidal trend of PCO2 in the creek stations. High PCO2 was observed during low tide and vice versa because the mangrove pore water and crab burrows are reaching PCO2 and add PCO2 during low tide whereas marine water reduces PCO2 during high tide. We observed a high DIC value with more deviated delta C13 of DIC. Denitrification was found the main organic matter degradation pathway. Total alkalinity by dissolved inorganic carbon ratio is a metric of carbonate buffering capacity and excess DIC was negatively correlated with total alkalinity by DIC ratio. On the other hand, no significant correlation was found between excess DIC and apparent oxygen utilization. Generally chlorophyll A and PCO2 are expected to be negatively correlated. However, in this case both chlorophyll A and turbidity showed a significant positive correlation with PCO2 and the biological uptake is not a dominant process in controlling low PCO2. Rather, organic matter degradation contributes to PCO2 water. A similar positive correlation between chlorophyll A and PCO2 was also found by other researchers in other parts of the world. To understand more deeply about the cause of low PCO2 of mangrove surrounding water the estimated PCO2 and reveal factor of all possible sources of water in the estuaries and the creeks. Reveal factor is a measure of carbon buffering capacity in marine water and we found that the low PCO2 and high carbonate buffering capacity was mainly contributed by offshore water of the Bay of Bengal which reduces the PCO2 even in the mangrove surrounding creek waters. Here we showed schematically that the CO2 efflux from the mangrove surrounding water was much lower than the recently estimated world average. Recently estimated world average and the main cause is high carbonate buffering capacity water is dominating Sundarbans from the northern Bay of Bengal. From this study we hypothesized a resultant hypothesis that is climate change and anthropogenic intervention can alter the riverine freshwater flow and can affect the inorganic and organic carbon dynamics and we estimated the effects of riverine freshwater reduction on the inorganic and organic carbon dynamics and air water CO2 flux in the mangrove dominated waters. To test this hypothesis we elaborated our study in the whole Matla estuary around Sundarbans and Dhamra estuary around the Vitorkonika mangrove forest. In a comparative approach of study we found higher salinity, lower PCO2 and high total alkalinity by DIC ratio in the Matla estuary than the Dhamra estuary. We also found that the seasonality of the pathway of organic matter degradation was found less in the Matla estuary than in the Dhamra. In Matla the organic matter degradation pathway was found mainly between denitrification and amunification. Whereas in Dhamra these pathways varied between the aerobic respiration, denitrification, calcium carbonate dissolution and sulphate reduction. This slide shows the three end member mixing model using the stable isotopes. The three end member mixing model of organic matter revealed that the relative contribution of mangrove riverine freshwater and marine end member to particulate organic matter of water was comparable between these two estuaries. However mangrove derived organic matter from carbon contribution is significantly higher in sedimentary organic matter in Matla than that of the Dhamra. This might be because of lesser flushing effect due to lack of riverine freshwater, higher sedimentation rate or higher mangrove coverage area but it is need to be researched more to confirm this the reason. This schematic diagram shows a mangrove dominated estuary with sufficient riverine freshwater supply has low solidity, high PCO2 low buffering capacity, low DIC and total alkalinity and high particulate organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon. Whereas mangrove dominated estuary with lack of riverine freshwater has high salinity, low PCO2, high negative buffering capacity, high dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity whereas low PCO2 particulate organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon. Hence we concluded that reduced riverine freshwater due to climate change and anthropogenic effects might have a positive feedback effect in the mangrove ecosystems which reduced CO2 evasion of the mangrove water, retention of more dissolved inorganic carbon in the water and storage of more mangrove derived blue carbon in the riverbed sediment. Mangrove environment and biogeochemistry are interwind with each other. Any changes in the mangrove habitat exhibit a clear manifestation in the biogeochemical dynamics of the surroundings, mangroves filter out pollutants that are known to us. However, due to indiscriminate anthropogenic activities mangroves themselves have become active depositors of pollutants, coastal eutrophication and the role of mangrove land conversion is one of the active areas of research flourishing all though all through India as a significant trend of mangrove land conversion of mangrove culture is noticed lately. Marine pollution like plastic pollution, heavy metal pollution, persistent organic compound pollution and antibiotic pollution have been and continue to be some of the active fronts of mangrove research in India. Several anthropogenic activities like dam construction and changes in river runoff and discharge influence the species of mangrove land conversion and the overall biogeochemistry of the mangrove adjacent sediment and water column. These changes are also widely being studied in India. However, before ending, I would like to stress the fact that more endeavours are required to conserve and restore the mangrove species assemblages in India or else future generation researchers will see enough mangroves to research upon this critical ecosystem. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Narvan. You actually wrapped up your talk in a shorter duration than allocated. So this gives us an opportunity to touch upon some of the questions that are coming up in Q&A box. But I must like to thank you in your presentation. We started off with the biogeochemical or the chemistry aspect, the carbonate and how changing atmospheric carbon dioxide is affecting the marine life and how blue carbon ecosystem. Understanding these processes are important in blue carbon ecosystem. And then you also shared some of the emerging ideas or gaps, what needs to be studied. But you need to also keep an eye on the big picture in terms of say dam construction somewhere happening in the upper catchment area, maybe reducing the flow of fresh water and that might have an impact on the mangrove or coastal ecosystem, which might otherwise look very natural. When you look at that system, you may not see anything different, but the water which was coming from upstream has been curtailed or has reduced significantly that the environmental flows in those streams and rivers are not maintained. And so all the biological productivity or all the function and structure of that ecosystem is jeopardized. So this is also important what happens in the landscape level affects what happens in the coastal area. So with that, we have still four minutes before we go to our next session. So I'll take an opportunity to go through some of the questions which are still open. There's one question which I think Dr. Kakoli Benerji indicated she would like to answer it live. And the question is is it possible to grow mangrove plant in nursery? Dr. Kakoli, would you like to say Yeah, because we all know that there are a lot of nurseries being developed by the forest department. So obviously it is possible, but only thing we will keep in mind the soil characteristics and the salinity profile for every mangrove because mangroves like heritera foams, nipah fruticans, these are some of the species which are freshwater loving. So if you have a low salinity, I mean please zero to two ppt salinity in the starting when you are starting the plantation or the seedling, at that time it helps them to grow faster. But in other cases, sometimes the species which are more saline loving like exocheria or rhizophora, one of the questions was there which I have answered in the typological typing mode that these are the species which are highly saline loving. So for those species you need to maintain the salinity of that soil. So this is the, and of course it is possible always to grow it in nursery because in Calcutta, in the East Calcutta wetlands because of the low saline environment there are some Sundari trees which are being planted and people are practicing its culture in their own home gardens because of the low salinity. So obviously it's always possible. Thank you. There are other questions about restoration and plantation but I don't want to address them now because one of our panel members will be speaking on this topic and it would be useful to bring those up in discussion later on. Then there was there are really long questions which will take some time to go through. I think maybe these are comments which should be sent in the chat box instead of questions. So while we wait for any other question to come up pertaining to the speakers or talks today, I do have one question for Dr. Anirpan. And I think you might have touched upon this but mangroves play an important role also for the corals, the water quality benefits that they provide are important for coral sustenance. So it's easy to understand the role that mangroves trap the sediments which are coming from upstream and that provide the water quality benefits. Can you speak a little bit about the nutrient aspect of it like how they can help in improving the water quality from nutrients perspective? Yes. I have worked in the Iriomote Island of Japan and though we have not measured the nutrient but what you are saying that the sediment trapping we have also seen the same thing that because of the mangrove plantation there is a continuum of mangrove and then seagrass and then corals and mangroves are trapping more and more nutrients and that is also they are trapping the particulate organic matter and so they provide a clean water for the seagrass and the corals and also the mangroves are acting as a refuse for the coral system I have also seen such kind of papers and for nutrients I assume that as it is trapping more and more sediments the mangroves are utilizing more and more nutrients also as well in the water to provide a cleaner water for the next ecosystem that is seagrass and coral but at the same time I think the organic matter degradation is a major part in the biogeochemistry of the mangrove surrounding water so the recycling of the nutrients in the mangrove whether it is acting as a lateral source or net lateral sink for nutrients is case specific and it is depending on the ecosystem and many other aspects where is the mangrove situated of the world and also important aspect I think yes it is also important because in some areas if there are excess nutrients or eutrophication then there is growth of microalgae and other communities which will not allow seagrasses and corals to thrive so just to highlight the interconnectedness of this entire ecosystem how they play an important role even for corals and seagrasses which are further towards the ocean Dr. Kulkuli there is one question which is in the chat box where our attendee Nagarajan is asking whether anyway we can quantify the loss of carbon in mangrove ecosystem which is lost due to severe cyclones Sir we can always go for it because with cyclonic depressions you need to monitor first of all physically it is very difficult after the cyclone is over and the post restoration phase you can always monitor what is the change in the biomass of the trees because generally what happens in the long run after the cyclones are already there the back in the back waters the too much of salinity that ingress in the water the tidal water which has ingress in the land area that keeps on standing so it increases the soil salinity because of which the growth of the mangroves get stunted in the long run so that post monitoring is very important for the cyclones to understand it physically and through remote sensing images you can always get a picture on what is the NDVI changes that you are finding or the area changes if you are finding now generally what happens in the near to the shore you have the seedlings growing up so those seedlings sometimes get washed off because of the erosion because the root network system is not so developed in the small trees so for that reason it is somewhat there are some reports saying that the mangroves get destroyed by the cyclones so it is not that the well developed mangroves will never get destroyed they are already firm and they have that tensile capacity to bend and again come back to its original position so it is for that reason we are proposing mangroves for plantation in the coastal areas so it is through remote sensing images you can always go for the management of how much land area it is reduced and just like I have already shown in my PowerPoint presentation that way we can do it and other ways is by physical method if you can visit after the post restoration phase thank you doctor this also highlights the importance of having some preliminary or baseline survey so if you have a little bit better understanding of the mangrove stocks then you can always relate back and do even with the physical monitoring then you can capture how much was there earlier and what kind of losses suffered so that is another aspect but the rules are vulnerable or the coastal areas vulnerable because of human or anthropogenic activities but there are increasingly more and more the severe natural events which are coming with the greater frequency greater intensity due to climate change and so the impacts are higher so with that I think it is a good time to transition we will have two panel members Professor Kathiration and Dr. Gurmeet Singh they will have a small presentation first and then we will leave the next half of this panel discussion sort of open discussions where all speakers along with panel members will be answering questions or will engage so this is a total one hour session and then we will have concluding remarks so our first panel member here is Professor Kathiration this is a name which I am sure everyone has heard and known his work so he needs no introduction but I will say a few words about him he is an honorary professor in Annamalai University he is a professor in faculty of marine sizes in the same university Dr. Kathiration is among top 2% mangrove scientists and is ranked first in India for marine biology and hydro biology so that is our incredible honour that he has made time to join this conference two of his research papers on mangroves are among top 10 in the world and in 15 other countries so he has a huge experience of not only national mangroves but also internationally he has executed about 30 projects guided 40 PhD students and organized over 100 plus training programs which has benefited participants and members from over 28 countries he has more than 500 publications including about 300 research papers 56 book chapters and 15 books so this just speaks volumes about his experience and his lifelong career as a mangrove researcher and educator so we are very happy to have you here sir the floor is yours next slide can I have the next slide most beautiful mangrove beautiful introduction thanks to Dr. Bhomya beautiful talks given by Dr. Banerjee Dr. Raghavan and Dr. Anirban and I am very happy to interact with all the mangrovers of this Indian subcontinent mangroves are extraordinary extraordinary in carbon sequestration and mangroves are the only blue carbon forest on the earth and we compared 25 year old planted mangrove site with the adjoining unplanted barren site we found the carbon sequestration is 90 fold higher in the soil of the planted site 9890 fold greater in both soil and vegetation of the planted site than the unplanted barren site and the carbon sequestration increased with the soil moisture silt and clay content of the soil and increasing level of soil nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium sulfur, copper, iron, zinc manganese and magnesium carbon sequestration potential reduced with increasing soil temperature soil, salinity and sand content of the soil so what we infer is carbon sequestration potential can be improved through soil management soil management can I have the next slide mangrove cover is increasing in India during 2011 and 2019 there was an increase of 54 square kilometers of mangrove forest cover in India there is a gain in the mangrove cover in Maharashtra, Odisha Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh unfortunately there was a loss of mangrove cover in Tamil Nadu, Andaman and West Bengal no change in other places of the country we had 6000 kilometers square kilometers mangrove cover during 1960s now it is 4975 square kilometers and therefore we have 1000 square kilometers possibly and there is a greater scope for restoration for boosting the carbon storage if you can see the mangrove cover in India after 2003 there is an increase in the mangrove forest cover overall increase and also it is likely to have 1000 square kilometers in the country there is a scope for restoration of boosting the carbon storage can I have the next slide in India we have three types of mangrove forest very dense, moderately dense and open the very dense mangrove has the canopy density of more than 70% moderately dense mangroves have the canopy density of 40 to 70% the open type of mangrove has the canopy density of less than 40% but if you look at it very dense mangrove 30% moderately dense mangrove 30% in the country open mangrove type we have 40% generally carbon sequestration will be greater in the very dense mangrove forest followed by moderately dense but the carbon sequestration will be poor in the open type of mangrove forest so we have to convert to the open type of mangrove forest in the country so rehabilitation of this open mangrove is necessary to boost up the carbon sequestration potential of this country can I have the next slide see mangroves are degrading already told you 40% are open type the mangroves are degrading mainly because high salinity as a result of high salinity the nutrient availability is reduced automatically beneficial bacterial counts are poor so can we convert the degrading mangroves into luxuriant mangroves by manipulating these adverse conditions by reducing the high salinity can we increase nutrient availability and the beneficial bacterial counts the answer is yes it is quite possible can all back planting technique this technique is for tidal flushing and rehabilitation of degrading mangroves so fish bone like model the canals are made therefore the tidal flushing is better then the degrading mangroves can be converted into luxuriant mangroves it was demonstrated with the participation of local people by MS Swaminathan foundation and forest department can I have the next slide please this participatory effort increased the forest cover by 90% in degraded mangrove areas of Pichawaram between 1986 to 2002 this is a success story so what do you infer from this is we need more focus on participatory management of mangroves for increasing the carbon sequestration potential so we need to raise the awareness among the public on the importance of mangroves on climate mitigation potential next slide please even though the canal bank planting technique is successful in some places say for example this is Muthupet area in few areas the mangroves were growing very luxuriant along this dugout canal but after 12 years of luxuriant growth mangroves died why? it is due to the siltation of this canal the siltation is because of the lack of free flow of tidal water so therefore the continuous monitoring of the restored mangrove is essential another thing within one decade you cannot expect the carbon accumulation to occur in the restored mangroves so the carbon accumulation will be significant only in long term so therefore continuous monitoring of the restored mangrove is essential where the remote sensing with machine learning approaches are very much required for the future mangrove conservation and management so what I can suggest is the protection should be given the priority the dense mangroves are very efficient in carbon sequestration we need to protect the dense mangroves wherever they are present and wherever we have larger trees with height and diameter that should be protected because there is a positive correlation between the tree height and carbon sequestration the diameter tree diameter and carbon sequestration so protection should be of our top priority second is hydrological restoration it should ensure the free flow of water if the soil is not massaged by the tidal water the mangroves will not be happy to grow so therefore the free flow of water should be ensured by hydrological restoration the third option only planting the planting should focus on biodiversity enrichment with the native species all these three practices should be made with the local participation the participatory management requires more attention and focus in this country connectivity the mangroves are highly interconnected with other coastal ecosystems seagrasses and coral reefs of course not everywhere you can find the mangrove seagrass coral reefs the best example is Gulf of Mannar so what we have done is we have compared mangrove seagrass corals seagrass coral intermediate mangrove seagrass intermediate the seascape approach we made and we analyzed the phytoplankton productivity as Kakoli rightly pointed out the phytoplankton productivity is very important then we analyzed phytoplankton productivity gram carbon per meter square per day the productivity was the highest in mangroves lowest in coral reef and intermediate in seagrasses in the seascape approach so this interconnectivity was observed by us next slide see what we have done is and we understood when the leaves are the litter falling down in the mangroves they are cut by the crabs facilitating microbial decomposition during microbial decomposition the nutrients are released especially nitrogen and phosphorus and nitrogen and phosphorus is the essential for phytoplankton productivity so when nitrogen and phosphorus is released by microbial decomposition the nitrogen and phosphorus enhances the phytoplankton productivity facilitating the carbon sequestration then these nutrients from mangroves are released into the seagrass and coral reef in the seascape naturally the productivity in the seagrass and coral reefs also increased so this interconnectivity needs more focus in future we have proved this interconnectivity using fatty acids and stabilized studies. Can I have the next slide please mangroves are the superstores and they are the superstars as compared to terrestrial forests because mangroves are absorbing a high quantity of atmospheric carbon dioxide storing it in the form of biomass very efficient in absorbing capturing carbon dioxide in the same way the carbon is stored in the soil for millions of years whereas in other terrestrial forests carbon storage is for a few decades but mangroves carbon storage is for millions and millions of years this is because the most of the soil domain of mangrove is anaerobic because of this anaerobic condition mangroves are stored efficiently in the mangrove soil for millions and millions of years but very unfortunately in India normally in the terrestrial forests people are focusing only on biomass that too on the above ground biomass and similar to terrestrial forests we are also working on mangroves that is not correct so rather than above ground biomass below ground biomass is very important in the below ground biomass there are enormous fine roots are developed and therefore we need more focus on the underground carbon sequestration but unfortunately we are collecting samples only in the top most layer of the soil so we should go for the deep soil sampling next slide please so we need to analyze the soil carbon at least for 1 meter depth of the soil so we have to analyze soil carbon at least 1 meter soil depth and we need to estimate total ecosystem carbon storage that is how much of quantity of carbon stored per unit area and very importantly carbon sequestration and this carbon sequestration is the climate mitigation potential so therefore the carbon sequestration the estimation is very important and this is the process of removing atmospheric carbon for storage per area per unit time so the carbon sequestration refers to climate mitigation potential so we need to follow uniform methodology of course Kauffman and Donato we are using but we have to refine this methodology a uniform methodology should be followed in this country or Indians of continent so that the comparison will be easier we have to improve the measurement of pillow ground carbon for the fine roots and sediments so precise measurement methods should be refined and we need to have some workshops training to the youngsters who are working on carbon sequestration potential next and as rightly pointed out by Dr. Raghavan this carbon sequestration varies with the type of mangroves tide dominated river dominated and interior mangroves how they are different in carbon sequestration potential and very dense mangrove forest dense forest and open mangrove forest in addition lagoon mangroves island mangroves yashurin mangroves delta mangroves like that you know different types of mangroves have to be studied because carbon sequestration potential varies with the type of mangroves type of mangroves next slide please we need to develop predictive models by using the data set of carbon sequestration deforestation and land use change drivers land use change drivers for identifying the hot spots of carbon dioxide emission we have to identify the hot spots of carbon dioxide emission for effective management today there are 6 global hot spots of carbon dioxide emission due to mangrove loss due to conversion to aquaculture, agriculture, urbanization and natural disasters among the 6 global hot spots of carbon dioxide emission due to mangrove loss the Bay of Bengal is one we need more focus on Bay of Bengal because even though India mangrove cover is increasing in Tamil Nadu, Andaman and this Bengal the mangrove cover is reducing we need more focus on Bay of Bengal in future next slide please you know the carbon sequestration mostly takes place during winter time there is a clear cut seasonal variation during summer carbon sequestration is minimum so the seasonal variations are important how this physical, chemical and biological factors are influencing the carbon sequestration potential we need more research intervention plant, mangrove plant species and Dr. Kakoli was telling you know the mangrove plant species varies in carbon stocking in different places in the same day microbes the studies on microbes in mangroves are very limited what is the role of anaerobic bacteria in the carbon sequestration we need more focus what is the role of fauna on carbon sequestration potential of mangroves we don't have much study you know the crabs the crabs are the keystone species of mangroves they are making burrows and then storing it in the burrows as a reserve bank otherwise the mangrove litter will be washed away by the tidal water and the crabs are saving the organic matter in the burrows so role of fauna in the carbon sequestration we need more focus and studies can I have the next slide the aspect I think I am very happy that Anirban pointed out this the carbon storage capacity reduces when the rainfall is low when the rainfall is low when the dam constructions are there then the obstructions are there what happened the freshwater entry from upland to mangrove will be reduced when the freshwater is reduced and the sediment entry is reduced and the nutrients are reduced then the mangrove forest will not will not grow luxuriant and the mangrove soil will become course textured in the same way seawater in many of our river mouth is silted blocked as a result of the siltation in the river mouth seawater entry or the tidal water flushing is very much reduced so this connectivity this hydrological connectivity impact on carbon storing capacity needs more study and focus increasing temperature, salinity tidal amplitude and aerobicity pollution especially sewage pollution when they are increasing then the carbon storing potential will be reduced so we need to study on these factors pertaining to carbon sequestration potential of mangroves when you say pollutants can I have the next slide please do you have many more slides it's very interesting discussion and I will finish up and I told you about sewage discharges the heavy sewage discharges and disturbances to mangroves are increasing the greenhouse gas emissions so therefore we need more quantification precise quantification on the fluxes of the greenhouse gases next slide please the climate change factors how the sea level rise, extreme storms high temperature, high atmospheric carbon dioxide, altered precipitation will have impact on carbon sequestration is very important we need more studies on this when the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere increasing quite receptive and tolerant we need more studies in Mumbai there is a best attack on heavy during heavy rainfall and in Pichawaram we have canopy dieback disease due to the drought and we need more focus on climate change factors next under very recent studies says India has only 4% of mangrove forest cover that is 189 square kilometers for blue carbon financing but I don't agree with this what is important today is it is necessary to map and document the mangroves in India for the spatial and temporal variations of carbon storage and sequestration potential in order to build a better picture on the role of mangroves in climate change mitigation the last slide since I was asked to give lecture for 10 minutes then I was asked to extend my talk for 25 minutes something like that I am extending it otherwise I would have cut short my talk this is the last slide Dr. Bomiya so be happy and cheerful the carbon trading market the carbon trading market is to be developed in this country because the demand for carbon trading is boosting up the seafood industries should be involved very much in future the first of all what we have to do is financially viable mangrove carbon sites how to be identified based on the probability of immediate threats imminent threats and carbon dioxide emissions and then what is the extent of this financially viable mangrove carbon sites so this is based upon the positive net present value if the net present value is positive then that area is financially viable if the net present value is negative it is not financially viable mangrove carbon site so this positive I mean net present value is the return on investment the return on investment is profit minus expenditure the profit is carbon price for 30 year project time frame with 5% annual price appreciation and the expenditure you know the cost of mangrove establishment and maintenance cost and the risk adjusted for the non permanence you know 10% is adjusted so like that the return on investment is calculated what is important is economics for this climate and the transportation potential is very much thank you very much for the opportunity Thank you Professor Kathyration I am sorry to call you on time but I think your presentation was very comprehensive and very interesting and I like how you trust upon all aspects not just the seascape approach what affects the mangrove but also the economy side if you really are serious about the global as a solution to climate change as an important blue carbon ecosystem I think it is very important that the finance is available this is one of the resounding message that came out from the COP26 that recently concluded that where is the money for making all these changes if we need to protect if we need to conserve these ecosystem for the global good there has to be plants in place where the countries get motivated to protect these areas not only for their own sake for their own population but also for the global climate change I am really glad and we will touch upon these aspects in our discussion after Dr. Gurmeet's presentation he will have a slide presentation on this very topic and then we will have an open discussion based on questions Dr. Kathirishan I will call upon you again to share more of your wisdom and knowledge on these topics in our open discussion forum but let me introduce Dr. Gurmeet our next panel member for sharing his presentation Dr. Gurmeet is working as a scientist at the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management and this is a Centre under Ministry of Environment and Forest Development of India. This Centre is based in Chennai and he is working or he has been working in the domain of coastal biogic ministry for the last 15 years. He has completed his PhD from Jawaharlal University and since then he has worked extensively on carbon, burial and nutrient dynamics in coastal ecosystem. His current area of interest is blue carbon ecosystem and before I pass on to Dr. Gurmeet I would also like to mention that he was my senior at Jawaharlal University so I know him from a long time it is a pleasure to have you here Dr. Gurmeet and the floor is yours please go ahead. Thank you very much I am sharing my screen is it visible? It is visible it is not on the full slide show mode yet. Ok, I will put it on now it is there hello? Not yet but maybe it is a delay but I still see it in the slides mode not a slideshow mode Is it now? Maybe you need to I will stop sitting and I will reshare it again. That will work I think. I will let you know as I see. Just a minute. Thank you very much Rupesh it has been long that we have met now coming to my presentation I will address to several of the questions what Dr. Kadir Eson has raised he has raised several of the valid questions really valid questions for example I will just give you an example I was listening to the presentation which happened since morning in Indian perspective there was quite a difference in the total mangrove area one study said that it is 4900 another was something 6000 another study mentioned that it is 5900 so it is quite different so it was when I am representing the government of India and ministry so when we started the work the biggest challenge was how to harmonize the things so whatever the results we present here is the communication to the netcom that through this publication volume which is available on the internet and anyone can access it if someone wants a copy I will be happy to share it so these slides I will just skip because already it has been discussed a lot and these are just general and we all know that carbon dioxide is increasing rapidly and it has to be addressed to the ecosystem to play a vital role in global carbon sequestration and with long term storage they act as a potential carbon sinks so this is a figure from McLeod which clearly depict how the coastal vegetative ecosystems can sequester more carbon this already Dr. Raghavan has explained in detail so I will just go to the slide where we so we started with the pan India perspective so when the government of India has implemented coastal zone regulation notification 2011 the problem was first problem came with the area that what is the exact area of Indian mangroves or sehra system or any blue carbon system in sehra area so in sehra notification these were classified in the zone one which needs to be conserved and protected and there should be no human interference and no development activity has to be there so there were 9 systems like mangrove forest, sand dunes, mud flats national parks, swarmas, tetanus trees and this tetanus in sites etc so when 2000 notification came so national centre for sustainable coastal management where I work was given the task to map these coastal ecosystems and demarcate their exact area to have a uniform number for the country and then we did an extensive mapping exercise in association with various partners and then we come up with a number that Dr Raghavan also has mentioned that 5400 square kilometre of mangrove area that is as per the CRJ 2011 notification so now the notification has come now again new mapping exercise will come and then again different areas will be defined so during this mapping exercise we also try to identify what are the type of species and how many genera and how they are distributed and then checklist was also prepared and when if we talk about the carbon sequestration is incomplete without talking about the emission scenario there is always a debate for emission versus burial so at the beginning of work we try to prepare an inventory from all the public work which whatever has happened in India on greenhouse gas emission from this coastal system during the preparation of the inventory it was quite tough because there was no methodology was not informed one set of researchers used different methodology another set of researchers used different methodology so we decided to take huge task in that we surveyed all the Indian mangrove along the east coast of India and west coast of India and islands to come up with a uniform number that can represent in an international platform what is the greenhouse gas emission from the Indian mangrove and how these are contributing so overall if we put that together we have seen that even though Andhra, Odisha, West Bengal they show the highest CO2 flux or as Katharassan sir and they said that the day of Bengal is a major contributor to GHG flux but at the same we have to see the extent of the mangrove area is very high in that so net carbon sequestration potential is very high so we will come into that into the next slide but in the same case Maharashtra the area is very small that is Thane and Ratnagiri but Thane itself is having a very high CO2 flux that is mainly due to the sewage if mangrove were not there so if mangrove were not sequesting so net CO2 fluxes were very high similarly in case of within fluxes also Maharashtra due to the Thane the extensive sewage input has resulted in high fluxes despite of having a very small area so the carbon uptake we also the important thing is that how much the carbon is being uptick by the plant that is a photosynthetic rate so with the leaf area index and the NDVI we also try to calculate and compute the net carbon uptake in the different mangrove and the mangrove for waste costs somewhere it will vary between the 3.2mg carbon per hectare to 35.44mg per hectare and highest carbon uptake where observed from that is the Herit area, Exocarea and Evesinia community showed the highest carbon uptake rate and in case of waste cost the uptake rate were comparatively lesser but they still they were in the highest uptake rate was approximately 27mg per hectare per year or carbon uptake rate was observed in the K in waste cost so when we talk about the burial several researchers has taken above ground biomass as Professor Kathirishan was rightly saying that most of the researchers has focused on the above ground biomass and till now we don't have a dedicated equation for measuring mangrove biomass whatever we are using to we are using from the foreign authors or international research that we are applying to this one but for mangrove forests we are able to derive a dedicated equation which will be applicable for the Indian mangroves so again then during the course of our study we also try to calculate or compute the date carbon stock in the sediments that if we take one meter of the soil then how much of the carbon is stored for a longer period of time as we are already saying that due to the anaerobic or anoxic environment in the mangrove these carbons are stored for a very long period of time because they have escaped at a rate of relations lower but here one thing that I want to bring to notice that which has to be focused in case of carbon sequestration research that most of the researchers do focus on sequestration potential they take sediment-organic carbon as a result the sediment-organic carbon one measure it takes the mineralizable and then calcitrate and then reach a non-mineralizable carbon all type of carbon it will oxidize and it will give you the carbon contained in percentage but that is not the case what is mineralizable carbon that will be immediately released due to the due to various chemical or chemical activity and apart will only go for the sequestration so again that we we try to from these sediments we are in process of partitioning sediment-organic carbon into various component and to arrive at that exact the nature of the carbon which actually goes at the burial for the longer period of time not the portion which is repeatedly degradable due to various physical and biological and chemical activity so same thing we are seeing if we talk about the sediment-carbon stock what I showed in previous slide with respect to greenhouse gas emission both Maharashtra the sediment-organic carbon sediment-organic carbon stock that is mega gram per hectare is very high it is much higher than the West Bengal which clearly indicate that whatever the sediment which is accumulated in the upper layer of the sediment is due to the savings input this carbon this very well correlates with the greenhouse gas emission from that area so even though in case of East Coast that is West Bengal, Orissa, A.P. nitrogen the carbon what is the carbon that is inherent mineral carbon and in case here it's the anthropogenically transferred carbon so while calculating the estimate of carbon species and carbon species potential or to give a result or to give a data we need to look at the environmental conditions also that what are the factors which are influencing if we represent that Maharashtra Bengal has a very high carbon sequestration potential then it will give a wrong picture to that the whole thing now coming to that problem that now we took forward that we took 12 mangrove species from various mangroves of India and we tried to identify which species will be more resilient or more effective in terms of the climate change perspective or what type of species will be more useful will predominate over another in terms of growth in terms of carbon sequestration so we computed the specific variation in mangrove steam biomass, lignin cellulose contain an elemental composition and the summeracea species showed no carbon density and high ratio of cellulose and lignin that indicated that among all the species all the two illustrators commonly found species this species has a faster growth and with when you want immediate colonization of mangrove this can be act as a very useful species and Avicenia ofisnalis and heritaria has very high agp and carbon sequestration potential whereas heritaria and lillitoris and candelia candle were low were higher lignin content and it shows that higher potential to sustain abiotic and abiotic stress and they showed higher recalcitrant biomass that means that whatever the carbon stored in this mangrove or whatever the mangrove organic carbon or is dating from this mangrove ecosystem will be stored in the sediment for a longer period of time so this is just a glimpse already a lot of people has talked a lot has been spoken about the mangrove so I will just quickly glimpse about the seagrass also seagrass is also one of the most vital ecosystem but it was quite neglected in study one of the drawback of sea grass that access to study seagrass is quite difficult that you have to have underwater experience and then sampling is also quite tricky so that's why the seagrass research has been still in net there has been quite a progress in last 10 years but the amount of research which has gone to seagrass is very less as compared to mangrove ecosystems so same in case of seagrass like if you talk about the continuum mangrove act as a sediment trap and then seagrass and then coral seagrass also act as if you talk see about the pathway ecosystem they are very beautifully protecting the coral ecosystem which is also lying by trapping the excess sediment excess sediment and then they helping so it's a continuum which is mangrove seagrass and then coral so coral health is also quite much influenced by the seagrass not only that but also they help in reducing the nutrient load by uptaking the nutrient so nutrient enrichment they also release they are also an oxygen pump of the coastal ocean so I will not end then again like professor Kaderesan was telling that this carbon sequestration and provincial is also dependent on the seasonality the same thing is in case of seagrass seagrass is a salinity loving plant so whenever there is a high rain is there or there is a high phase water they are reduced, they are stressed so their carbon sequestration potential is also reduced where in case of high salinity they progress very well and this data and see if we now we compare the DAG emission by seagrass ecosystem Chilica way and Pagbe Chilica DAG emissions are comparatively lesser but Pagbe at the same time Pagbe has a net area extent area is Pagbe is 330 square kilometer and Chilica is 75 square kilometer when we compare DAG emission from mangrove versus seagrass you see seagrass despite that the net mangrove area is 60 square kilometer from India so seagrass the net 511 gigagram carbon dioxide per year it is emitting whereas the seagrass is emitting only 16 gigagram per year so the productivity seagrass productivity is very high respiration net productivity in the wet season is a little reduced because of the freshwater stress but overall the seagrass productivity is very high and they act as an oxygen pump and we talk if you talk about the topic net ecosystem metabolism in case of Chilica southern sector is the area where most of the seagrass are located so you can see the net ecosystem metabolism that is primary productivity minus respiration that is there only it's a positive or more or less positive whereas in case of other sectors that in southern sector central sector and outer channel where in case of Chilica where which are devoid of seagrass their primary productivity is less than the respiration so they act as a potential carbon sink I will just come to this and again for in case of seagrass the root should trace you like in case of mangrove the above ground biomass and below ground biomass which is often neglected aspect of mangrove but it also act as a major sink it is a key factor while deciding the while calculating the carbon sequester potential of mangrove similarly in case of seagrass it's a net root biomass which is more the higher the root biomass more is the carbon sequestration potential of that particular and similarly simodecia and helodule which are having the higher root biomass the sequester is more carbon and this already has discussed that about 30% that is a very transient and mangrove that is the active zone this is the place where all the microbiological and other activity takes place and we should be very careful while taking the whole sediment organ carbon in our calculation for sediment net sediment organic carbon burial or net carbon sequestration however in case of deep sediment we can safely compute into that now if we talk about the coal if we talk about the carbon sequestration budget in Chilica that is a lagoon in Orissa that we calculated in that net respiration is 0.08 teragramm carbon whereas the burial is 0.06 net burial is 0.06 teragramm carbon and in sediment overall the storage is 0.76 teragramm of carbon and similarly we also computed for the carbon budget in Park Bay and we calculated for whole India how the net carbon sequestration will be with with the with the reactor in the CGRAS ecosystem where the reaction rate varies from 2.3 to 4.35 megagramm carbon per hectare per year where sediment stores almost 100 to 150 megagramm organic carbon per hectare and below ground biomass around 1 megagramm carbon per hectare is the above ground biomass so to summarize wetland and sub-bus equity a vegetation they contribute significantly to global carbon sink this is already published by McLeod our highly referred paper and we compared with our results that coastal and all India that with how the sediment organic carbon stocks in major ferroids ecosystem so even though the area of mangrove ecosystems are very low or coastal ecosystems are very low it's around 0.4% of the total forest area of India but you can see the net organic carbon burial per square kilometer is quite high so while computing the net carbon stock will of foreign country these coastal ecosystems will play a major role and their conservation and protection is very much important and very much required so in India is committed to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons by creating additional forest and tea cover by 2030 and you can clearly see the net carbon acryl per hectare per year in case of mangrove is 1.69 mangrove mega gram per mega gram whereas in case of cigarette is 1.66 mega gram per year and if we increase the 20% of the area cover then we can we can create an additional sink of 669 gigagram of carbon in mangrove ecosystem and 84 gigagram of carbon in cigarette ecosystem values are high in case of mangrove because in case of mangrove the biomass is high as compared to cigarette and the restoration of 100 hectare will reduce the carbon emission per year by 144 gigagram restoration of 100 hectare will reduce the restoration of 100 hectare of mangrove will reduce carbon dioxide emission by 144 gigagram and restoration of 100 gram of cigarettes will reduce the carbon dioxide emission by 52 gigagram. So in general if we talk about that one act of general calculation that we try to make it as simple form for the policy maker or common man who can understand the importance of why we need to sequester these coastal ecosystem mangrove the coastal community do understand their significance their importance why they because they depend they know that it is used for firewood, honey collection, fisheries and this thing but seagrass mostly fishermen they think that it is a waste the seagrass leaves get stuck in the boat propellers and then it often causes damage so they consider it as a wasteland so to give them importance or to make them understand what is the so we made it simple that one make of seagrass can sequester up to 335 3,350 gram of carbon per year and it can mitigate carbon dioxide from a car which is traveling around 6000 km2 it absorbs 2.9 kg of nutrient per year that is equivalent to treated different of around 500 people and it gives ecosystem services worth 11 lakhs rupees per year. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Gurmeet. Thank you for another comprehensive presentation and taking us through the realm of seagrass ecosystem under this blue carbon ecosystem we have spoken in detail about my rules so thank you for bringing seagrass into the discussion. I think it is very clear the importance of mapping and documenting the area under this ecosystem because if we don't know what is present where it is difficult then another important point that I think you both Dr. Professor Kathiration you highlighted is developing understanding of below ground carbon which is often underestimated or understudied so with that I would we have a little bit crunch of time now initially I was thinking we will have extra time so I asked our members to expand their presentation so let's take few interesting questions before I hand it over to Dr. Nehru for a summary and wrap up of today's session so this question is for Dr. Yeah it doesn't say anything specifically but there is a question from Dr. Rani and she is asking how can we improve carbon sequestration potential of aquaculture converted mangrove habitat so basically I think she is asking rehabilitation of these areas in a manner that they can you know correspond to a healthy productive mangrove system so anyone who wants to answer can speak please be brief though In Philippines the degraded aquaculture lands have been rehabilitated successfully by flushing with the seawater and then they have successfully grown mangroves in the Philippine area so that successful model can be taken to our country and then we can do it what is important is flushing with the seawater is very important because the soil is already acidic because of the aquaculture practice if we can make it you know with the seawater then we can rehabilitate it very well and then we can increase the carbon sequestration potential of mangrove areas So following up on and there is another question about I think you showed one interesting slide with those you know fish bone like animal structure there is a question is this pattern created by hand digging or does it require a specialized machinery or is it only hand digging local people are involved in digging the soil so that they can get to the livelihood you know employment opportunity and participate in you know opportunity And I think we will have one of the speaker or panel member tomorrow from MSSRF to maybe discuss a little bit more about this because I recall there was a question with MSSRF isn't it Professor Kathirishan? Yes, yes So stay tuned for tomorrow's program for a little more detail on that one and then there was another question that again for you Professor Kathirishan do you have any reason why mangrove cover has been decreasing in Tamil Nadu over time? Actually in Tamil Nadu again we have a 45 square kilometre area and due to gaja gaja cyclone you know what happened the green cover reduced but now the natural regeneration is taking place even in Amban you know Amban cyclone in West Bengal, Sundarban there was a devastating effect but still the copying takes place in mangroves and the regeneration, natural regeneration the copying ability is very high with the mangroves after sometime it gets regenerated the leafing is taking place and things like that we have to wait for some time you know for the recovery but it is very quick recovery every year you know in Gujarat we used to get you know de-foliation and something like that you know after once you know you would get the leafing very quickly it depends upon the condition and the severity of the stress Thank you and then one last question if anyone has a response to that there is a question about monitoring an evaluation for mangrove conservation in India and regulations so I believe there are these regulations in place for this department or the mangrove divisions have their own working plans and their process they may not be as efficient but they are there as far as I know but if someone has any more insights into this process you would like to add briefly in a minute or two would you like to say something? Sorry Alice can you repeat the question I was just going through the comments so just something about monitoring and evaluation of law and regulation perspective so the government's role in I know you touched upon yes monitoring and evolution in case of like in forestry law but these coastal ecosystems are governed under the coastal regulation that is in 2011 now it's 2019 monitoring and evolution is entirely governed within that and that not only if you talk about the not only the fiscal governance but that means the conservation protection and restoration as well as the economic also like the ecosystem evolution also value associated with this all ecosystem this entire thing is governed by this coastal regulation Joan CRJ notification 2019 and 2011 so India we have a promoter approach of management for mangroves we have identified 38 mangrove areas all along the coastal area in all the 38 mangrove areas management action plan you know is being implemented continuous monitoring is being done the evaluation is also done on the management practices by government of India. So I think this is about time we should go through the summary and conclusion for today's very insightful very productive and rewarding discussion I would have wished a little more time for discussion but the conference has just begun to this first date tomorrow we will delve deeper into other aspects of mangrove seascape coastal environment and have more discussion but to wrap our today's deliberations we have Dr. Nehru who is a TBT inspired faculty at my life institute of India is also one of the co-conspirator with me in developing this workshop and inviting all of you so I would also like to thank him for going along and sort of encouraging supporting coming up with ideas to make this event happen and in this place I invite Dr. Nehru to summarize today's event and provide some comments and wrap up today's proceedings Dr. Nehru. So it was a wonderful day we had a very good number of participants I see that at least 100 participants across the day of the event so there was a lot of talks today about carbon sequestration and carbon stocks of mangroves and the day is dedicated for that and I thank all the speakers and all the speakers and participants for being engaged and also the speakers were very you know delivered their talks at a very you know made relevance to the topics on the theme of the day and it was a wonderful discussion and there are certain things I mean some of the speakers have emphasized on the knowledge gaps already we have saved you know we have a session for it but already we've been hearing some of the knowledge gaps where we should focus the future research and especially the you know use of comprehensive method that could deliver the results of you know national level and that could be compared with international level studies so we definitely need to go forward in that angle and then there were Professor Kathirisen emphasized how this seasonal variations in carbon stock assessments need to be made and the role of microbes and macro bentos in carbon sequestration so these studies need to come up and also like Dr. Gurmeet mentioned the data need to be you know unified so that we have a comprehensive sense of Indian mangrove systems and especially in the carbon stock assessments so and we have a very interesting day coming up tomorrow and like today it was mostly about you know the nature based solution and carbon stock especially but tomorrow we're going to have a very broader topics and we have very good interesting number of speakers of different backgrounds, academicians and people from NGOs and policy makers so we are looking forward to a very interesting session tomorrow and I hope all of you could join us tomorrow and maybe you can also spread a word to all of the interesting people so that we can have a very interesting sessions coming up tomorrow so with that I thank all the people for being with us today and hope to see you all tomorrow as well thank you Thank you Dr. Nehru so before I formally sort of close the event I would like to thank all the support and encouragement provided by our institute WII and our director Dr. Robert Nasi they have been very supportive of this idea and our funding agency USAID under SWAM program without which this would not have been possible but also like to thank our technical team for being with us in this law less and smooth transition from speakers to presentations so this was great I look forward to welcoming you all again tomorrow same time, same place, thank you again have a good day, bye bye for now