Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.

Sec. Soil Processes

Effects of Shrimp Aquaculture on Mangrove Soil Carbon Stocks and Sustained-flux Global Warming Potentials

Provisionally accepted
Nathalie FennerNathalie Fenner1*Elisha HaywardElisha Hayward1,2Brian BovardBrian Bovard3Simon CreerSimon Creer1Christian DunnChristian Dunn1Chris FreemanChris Freeman1Nigel MilnerNigel Milner1
  • 1Bangor University School of Environment and Natural Sciences, Bangor, United Kingdom
  • 2University College London, London, United Kingdom
  • 3Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Mangroves provide a multitude of ecosystem services, including storing up to ca. 20 Pg of carbon. Aquaculture driven mangrove degradation results in significant carbon losses associated with forest clearance, drainage, and the removal of surface soils. However, uncertainties exist regarding the magnitude of loss due to environmental factors, land use, study type and aquacultural practices. Sustained-flux Global Warming Potentials (SGWP) during construction, operation and abandonment phases is understudied. Here we used a microcosm simulation in order to better constrain carbon loss pathways and SGWP, inform management practices and highlight knowledge gaps. Biogeochemical emissions during culture and abandonment added ca. 25%, suggesting the impact of aquaculture is underestimated. However, soil removal during construction dominated emissions (ca. 75%). Thus, long operation duration and re-use of ponds would reduce emission factors, and the fate of removed soils is suggested as a priority for research. Extrapolation suggests emissions could be important for national and regional carbon accounting, but also in relation to global climate mitigation, given the potential for significant underestimates of the impact of aquaculture on mangrove ecosystems.

Keywords: Aquaculture, Blue carbon & ecosystem services, Climate mitigation, Greenhouse gases (GHG), mangrove

Received: 21 Oct 2025; Accepted: 31 Jan 2026.

Copyright: © 2026 Fenner, Hayward, Bovard, Creer, Dunn, Freeman and Milner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Nathalie Fenner

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material