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The jumbo carbon footprint of a shrimp: carbon losses from mangrove deforestation
Author(s) -
Boone Kauffman J,
Arifanti Virni B,
Hernández Trejo Humberto,
Carmen Jesús García Maria,
Norfolk Jennifer,
Cifuentes Miguel,
Hadriyanto Deddy,
Murdiyarso Daniel
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
frontiers in ecology and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.918
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1540-9309
pISSN - 1540-9295
DOI - 10.1002/fee.1482
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , mangrove , deforestation (computer science) , environmental science , carbon footprint , shrimp , hectare , ecosystem , wetland , environmental protection , carbon fibers , carbon dioxide equivalent , agroforestry , ecology , biology , agriculture , composite number , computer science , programming language , materials science , composite material
Scientists have the difficult task of clearly conveying the ecological consequences of forest and wetland loss to the public. To address this challenge, we scaled the atmospheric carbon emissions arising from mangrove deforestation down to the level of an individual consumer. This type of quantification represents the “land‐use carbon footprint”, or the amount of greenhouse gases ( GHG s) generated when natural ecosystems are converted to produce commodities. On the basis of measurements of ecosystem carbon stocks from 30 relatively undisturbed mangrove forests and 21 adjacent shrimp ponds or cattle pastures, we determined that mangrove conversion results in GHG emissions ranging between 1067 and 3003 megagrams of carbon dioxide equivalent ( CO 2 e) per hectare. There is a land‐use carbon footprint of 1440 kg CO 2 e for every kilogram of beef and 1603 kg CO 2 e for every kilogram of shrimp produced on lands formerly occupied by mangroves. A typical steak and shrimp cocktail dinner would burden the atmosphere with 816 kg CO 2 e. This is approximately the same quantity of GHG s produced by driving a fuel‐efficient automobile from Los Angeles to New York City. Failure to include deforestation in life‐cycle assessments greatly underestimates the GHG emissions from food production.