{ "layers": [ { "currentVersion": 10.41, "id": 0, "name": "Blue Carbon Stocks (MgC) - Eelgrass Meadows", "type": "Raster Layer", "description": "In response to the New England Governor and Eastern Canadian Premier 2017 Climate Change Action Plan recommendation to \u201cmanage blue carbon resources to preserve and enhance their existing carbon reservoirs,\u201d the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened a New England Blue Carbon Inventory Workgroup (comprised of a variety of federal, New England state, academic, and non-profit organizations) to develop an inventory of blue carbon stocks from Maine to Long Island, New York. The Workgroup focused its inventory efforts on salt marshes and eelgrass meadows, leveraging existing habitat maps for geographic data. Those data include the Portal's regional Eelgrass Meadows layer and the Tidal Marsh Vegetation Classification layer developed by the Saltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research Program<\/a>, which is also viewable on the Portal. The Workgroup compiled carbon bulk density and organic carbon concentration data collected within these habitats throughout the region from 21 studies published between 1992-2022 over 189 sites: 114 within high and low salt marsh; 40 within Phragmites; and 35 within eelgrass. The available data allowed for the calculation of carbon stocks to a depth of 30 cm. For visual display purposes, sediment carbon heat maps were developed to highlight areas of greatest carbon accumulation. The Portal displays four layers resulting from the Workgroup's analysis:\n
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