The blue carbon wealth of nations

Bertram, Christine; Quaas, Martin F.; Reusch, Thorsten B. H.; Vafeidis, Athanasios T.; Wolff, Claudia; Rickels, Wilfried

doi:10.1038/s41558-021-01089-4

Cited by 117 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Blue carbon is "organic carbon that is captured and stored by the oceans and coastal ecosystems" and the term is used to distinguish carbon sequestered in marine systems from that of terrestrial "green carbon" systems (Macreadie et al 2019, andsee Mcleod et al 2011). Many countries, for example, China, Australia, UK, and the European Union, are developing blue carbon strategies involving enhancing blue carbon stocks to assist in CDR (Zhang et al 2017, Wu et al 2020, Bertram et al 2021, Frigstad et al 2021; Fig. S12).…”

Section: Carbon Dioxide Uptake and Timescales Of Storage By Terrestri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic carbon accounting: Assessing the role of seaweeds for carbon sequestration

Hurd

Law

Bach

et al. 2022

Journal of Phycology

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Carbon sequestration is defined as the secure storage of carbon‐containing molecules for >100 years, and in the context of carbon dioxide removal for climate mitigation, the origin of this CO2 is from the atmosphere. On land, trees globally sequester substantial amounts of carbon in woody biomass, and an analogous role for seaweeds in ocean carbon sequestration has been suggested. The purposeful expansion of natural seaweed beds and aquaculture systems, including into the open ocean (ocean afforestation), has been proposed as a method of increasing carbon sequestration and use in carbon trading and offset schemes. However, to verify whether CO2 fixed by seaweeds through photosynthesis leads to carbon sequestration is extremely complex in the marine environment compared to terrestrial systems, because of the need to jointly consider: the comparatively rapid turnover of seaweed biomass, tracing the fate of carbon via particulate and dissolved organic carbon pathways in dynamic coastal waters, and the key role of atmosphere–ocean CO2 exchange. We propose a Forensic Carbon Accounting approach, in which a thorough analysis of carbon flows between the atmosphere and ocean, and into and out of seaweeds would be undertaken, for assessing the magnitude of CO2 removal and robust attribution of carbon sequestration to seaweeds.

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Section: Carbon Dioxide Uptake and Timescales Of Storage By Terrestri...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic carbon accounting: Assessing the role of seaweeds for carbon sequestration

Hurd

Law

Bach

et al. 2022

Journal of Phycology

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show abstract

“…The natural capital of the ocean is vast and deep, and ocean services are often taken for granted and used for free, with their damage unrecognized and uncompensated (Baker, Ramirez‐Llodra & Tyler, 2020). The ocean urgently needs comprehensive natural capital accounting (Bertram et al, 2021) and imaginative and effective funding and financing mechanisms to support ocean biodiversity and climate action by all nations (Thiele & Gerber, 2017; Sumaila et al, 2020). Crucially, in an age of global connectivity (Arvis & Shepherd, 2013), everyone must work together to ensure that a sustainable blue economy based on the Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP‐FI), 2020) not only prevents any further damage and destruction of ecosystems and underlying services, but also restores and improves ocean health locally and globally.…”

Section: Why It Is Critical To Fully Recognize the Key Role That The ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The forgotten ocean: Why COP26 must call for vastly greater ambition and urgency to address ocean change

Laffoley

Baxter

Amon

et al. 2021

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Of all the interconnected threats facing the planet, the top two are the climate and the biodiversity crises. Neither problem will be solved if we ignore the ocean. To turn the tide in favour of humanity and a habitable planet, we need to recognize and better value the fundamental role that the ocean plays in the earth system, and prioritize the urgent action needed to heal and protect the ocean at the 'Earthscape' levelthe planetary scale at which processes to support life operate.2. The countries gathering at COP26 have unparalleled political capacity and leadership to make this happen. COP26 could be the turning point, but there must be commitment to united action for the ocean, as well as planning to meet those commitments, based on science-led solutions that address the interconnectivity of the ocean, climate, and biodiversity.

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“…Seagrass meadows are among the most widely distributed coastal ecosystems in the world, and play a crucial role in the transitional zone between land and sea (Du et al, 2020;Orth et al, 2020). Seagrass ecosystems are recognized as the most productive ecosystems with an annual carbon sequestration potential as high as 43.9 ± 12.1 MtC yr −1 (Bertram et al, 2021), and provide US$100 million per year to the world's blue economy (Stockbridge et al, 2020). However, in recent years, the structure and function of seagrass ecosystems have been threatened by multiple global stressors caused by human activities and climate change, resulting in pervasive and continuous degradation of seagrass meadows across the world (Waycott et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Turbidity Mediates the Combined Effects of Nutrient Enrichment and Herbivory on Seagrass Ecosystems

et al. 2022

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While nutrient enrichment and herbivory have been well recognized as the main driving factors of seagrass meadow fragmentation and degradation, there is limited understanding of how their relative importance shifts across large spatial scales where environmental factors such as turbidity can vary. In this study, a field control experiment was conducted in two Zostera japonica meadows distributed on the two banks of the Yellow River Estuary with different turbidity, to investigate the combined effects of nutrient enrichment and herbivory on seagrass and macroalgae. Our results showed that turbidity had the mediating force of shifting the relative importance of nutrient enrichment and herbivory to seagrass and macroalgae. While herbivory played a vital role in maintaining the balance between the two primary producers in a turbid environment, nutrient enrichment tended to offset herbivory-induced biomass loss by promoting seagrass growth in a less turbid system. Additionally, two potential mechanisms that might regulate the responses of seagrasses and macroalgae to nutrient enrichment and herbivory under different turbidity are proposed. On the one hand, turbidity might mediate the feeding preference of herbivores. On the other hand, nutrient enrichment favors the growth of opportunistic macroalgae over seagrass in turbid systems. Our study emphasizes the mediating force of turbidity on seagrass ecosystems, and provides references for the protection and restoration of seagrass meadows under multiple environmental stressors, and prompts further studies on the feedback between sediment dynamics and seagrass meadows in the context of ecogeomorphology.

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The blue carbon wealth of nations

Cited by 117 publications

References 42 publications

Forensic carbon accounting: Assessing the role of seaweeds for carbon sequestration

Forensic carbon accounting: Assessing the role of seaweeds for carbon sequestration

The forgotten ocean: Why COP26 must call for vastly greater ambition and urgency to address ocean change

How Turbidity Mediates the Combined Effects of Nutrient Enrichment and Herbivory on Seagrass Ecosystems

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