Blue carbon storage - carbon sequestration in coastal wetlands - can help coastal managers and policymakers achieve broader wetlands management, restoration, and conservation goals, in part by securing payment for carbon credits. Despite considerable interest in bringing wetland restoration projects to market, the transaction costs related to quantifying greenhouse gas fluxes and carbon storage in restored marsh has been a significant limiting factor to realizing these projects. To reduce transaction costs, the Bringing Wetlands to Market research team developed a verified and generalized model that can be used across New England and the mid-Atlantic East Coast to assess and predict greenhouse gas fluxes and potential wetland carbon across a wide environmental gradient using a small set of readily available data.

About this Tool

The Coastal Wetland Greenhouse Gas Model 2.0 (CWGM 2.0) is a user-friendly tool to predict greenhouse gas fluxes and potential carbon storage in coastal wetlands under different conditions. It allows northeastern and mid-Atlantic land managers, restoration practitioners, and policymakers to better understand greenhouse gas fluxes in tidal wetlands of interest to them, and leverage advances in blue carbon science to support wetland management and restoration.

This factsheet and user guide provides information about the model instructions for its use.

For more information about the model, contact:

Dr. Omar I. Abdul-Aziz, oiabdulaziz@mail.wvu.edu

Mohammed T. Zaki, mz0014@mix.wvu.edu