Boletín de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras

Vol. 54 No. 1 (2025)
Research Articles

Estimating foliar organic matter input into mangrove sediments using green tea bags

PDF (Español (España))
  • Juan F. Blanco-Libreros
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25268/bimc.invemar.2025.54.1.1323

Published 2025-01-01

Keywords

  • Decomposition,
  • Plant organic matter,
  • Recalcitrant organic matter,
  • carbon sequestration,
  • Semi-arid zones,
  • Colombia
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

1.
Blanco-Libreros JF. Estimating foliar organic matter input into mangrove sediments using green tea bags. Bol. Investig. Mar. Costeras [Internet]. 2025 Jan. 1 [cited 2025 Nov. 29];54(1):93-112. Available from: https://boletin.invemar.org.co/ojs/index.php/boletin/article/view/1323

Copyright (c) 2024 Juan F. Blanco-Libreros

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Leaf litter decomposition transfers carbon to sediments in mangroves. The “tea bag method”, proposes to study decomposition using a standard substrate, but it has not been yet implemented in Colombia. Here, an adaptation is presented using green tea from a local brand to estimate the mass remaining after 90 and 180 days in a mangrove area (Rincón del Mar, Sucre). A total of 192 bags were buried within a 165 ha-patch, arranged in a spatially nested design (10 ha, 16 m2, 1 m2 and 150 cm2), and retrieved after 90 days. In a paired experiment aimed to measure mass remaining after 90 and 180 days, 48 bags were buried in the center of each 1 m2-block. The mass remaining after 90 days was 63.6% (standard deviation: 11.8%). No significant difference was observed at the first level of nestedness, but significant variability was observed within the finer levels. The mass remaining at 180 days was significantly lower (49%). This study demonstrates the usefulness of the method as a proxy of the input of organic carbon into mangrove sediments.

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