Exploring "Blue Carbon" in California Salt Marshes
Dr. Jason Keller, Chapman University
The term "blue carbon" refers to the massive amount of carbon stored in the vegetation and soils of many coastal ecosystems, including the salt marshes of California. There is a growing interest from coastal managers to better understand and quantify the blue carbon stored in, and released from, these environments. In part, this interest stems from emerging carbon markets which could, conceptually, allow carbon trading to help support wetland restoration and conservation. Dr. Keller will share results from a number of collaborative projects exploring the ecology of blue carbon in coastal California salt marshes.
Jason Keller is the Interim Dean of the Schmid College of Science and Technology at Chapman University. He earned his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. His ongoing research engages undergraduate collaborators in the investigation of carbon cycling in a variety of wetland ecosystems, ranging from peatlands in Minnesota to salt marshes in California.
