Abstract: Wetlands can potentially accumulate organic carbon at very high rate over long periods of time due to their continual accretion and burial of organic rich material into the sediment. Coupled with the anaerobic conditions of microbial activity where degradation happens at a very slow rate wetlands have an advantage over other environments due to their carbon sequestration ability. Therefore the destruction of wetlands not only leads to loosing them as carbon sinks but also means the carbon stored can be released once again into the atmosphere adding more strength into the greenhouse effect. The purpose of this research project is to better understand the role of wetlands as carbon sinks by their C sequestration potential. Sediment at the Riverbend site in Secaucus NJ was cored. For the 274.3 cm core the bulk density, total organic carbon as well as the gradual accretion were determined.
