The potential for Blue Carbon ecosystems to combat climate change and provide co-benefits was discussed in the recent and influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. In terms of Blue Carbon, the report mainly focused on coastal wetlands and did not address the socio-economic considerations of using natural ocean systems to reduce the risks of climate disruption. In this paper, we discuss Blue Carbon resources in coastal, open-ocean and deep-sea ecosystems and highlight the benefits of measures such as restoration and creation as well as conservation and protection in helping to unleash their potential for mitigating climate change risks. We also highlight the challenges—such as valuation and governance—to marshaling their mitigation role and discuss the need for policy action for natural capital market development, and for global coordination. Efforts to identify and resolve these challenges could both maintain and harness the potential for these natural ocean systems to store carbon and help fight climate change. Conserving, protecting, and restoring Blue Carbon ecosystems should become an integral part of mitigation and carbon stock conservation plans at the local, national and global levels.

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The aim of this project was to study the feasibility of utilizing native microalgae for the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, as a potential secondary wastewater treatment process in Ecuador. Agitation and aeration batch experiments were conducted using synthetic secondary wastewater effluent, to determine nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies by a native Ecuadorian microalgal strain. Experimental results indicated that microalgal cultures could successfully remove nitrogen and phosphorus. [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] removal efficiencies of 52.6 and 55.6%, and 67.0 and 20.4%, as well as [Formula: see text] production efficiencies of 87.0 and 93.1% were reported in agitation and aeration photobioreactors, respectively. Aeration was not found to increase the nutrient removal efficiency of [Formula: see text]. Moreover, in the case of [Formula: see text], a negative impact was observed, where removal efficiencies decreased by a factor of 3.3 at higher aeration rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the removal of nutrients by native Ecuadorian Chlorella sp., hence the results of this study would indicate that this native microalgal strain could be successfully incorporated in a potential treatment process for nutrient removal in Ecuador.

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