blue carbon – envirobites

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Blue Carbon and Green Kelp: Kelp forests could reduce carbon emissions

October 9, 2020February 9, 2021 Elisabeth Lang 0 Comments blue carbon, Climate Change, kelp forests

Blue carbon is the carbon that is stored within marine ecosystems. It is being used more frequently within global carbon budgets, which are calculated to help us reduce climate change. Historically, only tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds have been used in calculating stored carbon for carbon budgets. A team of researchers from Norway wanted to see if kelp forests could significantly contribute to carbon storage. They studied the kelp forests along Australia’s southern coast and found their storage potential to be similar to that of the other historically used ecosystems. Conserving and restoring kelp forests could therefore increase carbon storage and help reduce climate change.

Environmental Science

How do kelp forests change water conditions and microbial communities?

October 21, 2019October 20, 2019 Lindsay Green-Gavrielidis 0 Comments blue carbon, diversity, kelp forests, microbes, nitrogen, ocean acidification, World Algae Day

In honor of World Algae Day which is celebrated on October 12th, we cover a recent study on charismatic kelp forest in the Pacific Northwest. A study led by Cathy Pfister at the University of Chicago shows that kelp forests can change water conditions by locally decreasing pH which can benefit organisms with shells. Furthermore, kelp forests increase the diversity of microbes, which may have previously overlooked consequences for nutrient cycling.

Climate Ecosystems Environmental Science

Not so blue anymore: how dead mangroves burden coastal carbon sinks

August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 Jackie Webb 0 Comments blue carbon, Climate Change, coastal environments, mangroves, methane

Mangrove forests have been feeling the pressure of climate change. With heat waves and low rainfall, many mangroves along a 1000 km stretch of coastline in northern Australia have been wiped out. However, the dead trees are living on by contributing large methane emissions which has consequences to global mangrove carbon stores and climate change. Read on to find out how the living dead remain active methane emitters.