A geobotanical, soil, and geomorphological description of the coastal zone was conducted, and soil carbon stocks were estimated in coastal landscapes of the Chosha Bay in the Barents Sea at the mouth of the Pyosha River. Carbon stocks varied widely from 8.75 to 236.02 t/ha. In the 50 cm soil layer, the highest carbon stocks found on the western bank of the river were 149 t/ha, compared to 96 t/ha in the marsh soils of the eastern bank. The study established that the minimum stocks were found in the soils of the coastal bars (ecotone zone), while the maximum was in the sediments of the eroded marsh ledge. Based on the carbon stored in the substrate of the relict marsh terrace, it can be assumed that the soil layers deeper than 50 cm are saturated with organic material. A statistically significant relationship was established between soil carbon reserves and the physical clay content, the height above the water edge, and the topographic wetness index. However, due to the high spatial and radial heterogeneity of carbon accumulation, extensive variability of environmental factors, and the insufficient sample size, the predictive ability of the resulting regression model for extrapolating data to unexplored coastal areas is low. Therefore, in order to predict marsh soil carbon stocks, it would be appropriate to use mean values of each coastal landscape.
Bagdasarov et al. (Mon,) studied this question.