Identifying and protecting macroalgae detritus sinks toward climate change mitigation

Queirós, Ana M.; Tait, Karen; Clark, James R.; Bedington, Michel; Pascoe, Christine; Torres, Ricardo; Somerfield, Paul J.; Smale, Dan

doi:10.1002/eap.2798

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the absence of regional models, empirical measurements of rates of kelp carbon export can be supplemented with ocean transport models, which can help approximate coastal to open ocean transport to various long-term sinks (e.g. 23,56 ). However, current export models will require a thorough interrogation with in-situ experiments and observation studies.…”

Section: Applying the Blueprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kelp forests, composed of large brown seaweeds primarily from the order Laminariales, have traditionally not been considered blue carbon ecosystems, due to their lack of roots and local carbon burial in sediments 14,15 . However, recent work identifies kelp forests as emerging BCEs 16 because of their ability to efficiently assimilate CO2 17 , their near global distributions 18,19 , their role as allochthonous producers of carbon-rich material, and their potential export to depositional environments where sequestration occurs [20][21][22][23] . Much like terrestrial forests, kelps form expansive and highly productive vegetated canopies, with some species extending from the benthos to the surface (i.e., surface kelps) and others forming dense submerged beds on the seafloor (i.e., subsurface kelps).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A blueprint for national assessments of the blue carbon capacity of kelp forests applied to Canada’s coastline

McHenry,

Okamoto,

Filbee-Dexter

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Kelp forests offer substantial carbon fixation, with the potential to contribute to natural climate solutions (NCS). However, to be included in national NCS inventories, governments must first quantify the kelp-derived carbon stocks and fluxes leading to carbon sequestration. Here, we present a blueprint for assessing the national carbon sequestration capacity of kelp forests in which data synthesis and Bayesian hierarchical modelling enable estimates of kelp forest carbon production, storage, and export capacity from limited data. Applying this blueprint to Canada’s extensive coastline, we find kelp forests store an estimated 1.4 Tg C in short-term biomass and produce 3.1 Tg C yr-1with modest carbon fluxes to the deep ocean. Arctic kelps had the highest carbon stocks and production capacity, while Pacific kelps had greater carbon fluxes overall due to their higher productivity and export rates. Our transparent, reproducible blueprint represents an important step towards accurate carbon accounting for kelp forests.

show abstract

Section: Applying the Blueprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A blueprint for national assessments of the blue carbon capacity of kelp forests applied to Canada’s coastline

McHenry,

Okamoto,

Filbee-Dexter

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Improvements in carbon tracing techniques, such as stable isotope analysis and environmental DNA (eDNA) combined with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), have recently enabled the identification of macroalgae among the potential sources of organic carbon in marine sediments, which are usually coarsely resolved. Macroalgal eDNA is commonly found in nearshore marine sediments, suggesting they contribute to carbon burial (Ortega et al ., 2019; Queirós et al ., 2019, 2022; Frigstad et al ., 2021; O'Dell, 2022; Ørberg et al ., 2022). Few studies to date have quantified their actual contribution, as finding macroalgae‐specific biomarkers has remained challenging.…”

Section: Main Macroalgal Carbon Sequestration Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the importance of oceanographic processes in shaping the fate of POC and DOC exported from coastal habitats is widely recognized, oceanographic models are still rarely used to investigate the transport of macroalgal carbon outside of source habitats. Fortunately, hydrodynamic models are rapidly becoming available for many coastal regions, allowing tracing of macroalgae‐derived carbon (Broch, Hancke & Ellingsen, 2022; Queirós et al ., 2022). Parametrizing these models with realistic values will require a better understanding of the size distribution of detritus particles, their floating and sinking velocities, and decomposition rates.…”

Section: Mapping Macroalgal Carbon Sequestration Potential and Direct...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation using macroalgae: a state of knowledge review

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The conservation, restoration, and improved management of terrestrial forests significantly contributes to mitigate climate change and its impacts, as well as providing numerous co‐benefits. The pressing need to reduce emissions and increase carbon removal from the atmosphere is now also leading to the development of natural climate solutions in the ocean. Interest in the carbon sequestration potential of underwater macroalgal forests is growing rapidly among policy, conservation, and corporate sectors. Yet, our understanding of whether carbon sequestration from macroalgal forests can lead to tangible climate change mitigation remains severely limited, hampering their inclusion in international policy or carbon finance frameworks. Here, we examine the results of over 180 publications to synthesise evidence regarding macroalgal forest carbon sequestration potential. We show that research efforts on macroalgae carbon sequestration are heavily skewed towards particulate organic carbon (POC) pathways (77% of data publications), and that carbon fixation is the most studied flux (55%). Fluxes leading directly to carbon sequestration (e.g. carbon export or burial in marine sediments) remain poorly resolved, likely hindering regional or country‐level assessments of carbon sequestration potential, which are only available from 17 of the 150 countries where macroalgal forests occur. To solve this issue, we present a framework to categorize coastlines according to their carbon sequestration potential. Finally, we review the multiple avenues through which this sequestration can translate into climate change mitigation capacity, which largely depends on whether management interventions can increase carbon removal above a natural baseline or avoid further carbon emissions. We find that conservation, restoration and afforestation interventions on macroalgal forests can potentially lead to carbon removal in the order of 10's of Tg C globally. Although this is lower than current estimates of natural sequestration value of all macroalgal habitats (61–268 Tg C year−1), it suggests that macroalgal forests could add to the total mitigation potential of coastal blue carbon ecosystems, and offer valuable mitigation opportunities in polar and temperate areas where blue carbon mitigation is currently low. Operationalizing that potential will necessitate the development of models that reliably estimate the proportion of production sequestered, improvements in macroalgae carbon fingerprinting techniques, and a rethinking of carbon accounting methodologies. The ocean provides major opportunities to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and the largest coastal vegetated habitat on Earth should not be ignored simply because it does not fit into existing frameworks.

show abstract

“…These range from photophysiology control of plankton succession (Atkinson et al, 2018), the role of food quality on plankton blooms (Polimene et al, 2015), bacteria carbon pump (Polimene et al, 2017) or the role of mixoplankton in plankton succession dynamics (Leles et al, 2021). Models can also represent a key source of information (a concept generally referred to as data Observatory Operational Forecast model (WCOOF) (Torres & Uncles, 2011), can be used to reconstruct back trajectories of plankton samples to explain community variations or assist in the evaluation of carbon sequestration estimates (Queirós et al, 2023). Models like WCOOF can also be used to interpolate environmental conditions to explain observed plankton shifts (e.g.…”

Section: Modellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Western Channel Observatory: a century of oceanographic, chemical and biological data compiled from pelagic and benthic habitats in the Western English Channel

McEvoy

Atkinson

Airs

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Western Channel Observatory (WCO) comprises a series of pelagic, benthic and atmospheric sampling sites within 40 km of Plymouth UK, which have been sampled by the Plymouth Institutes on a regular basis since 1903. This longevity of recording and the high frequency of observations provide a unique combination of data; for example temperature data were first collected in 1903 and the reference station L4 has been sampled on a weekly basis since 1988 where nearly 400 planktonic taxa have been enumerated. While the component datasets have been archived, here we provide the first summary database bringing together a wide suite of the observations. This provides monthly average values of some of the key pelagic and benthic measurements for the inshore site L4 (50° 15.00' N, 4° 13.02' W approx depth 55 m), the offshore site E1 (50° 02.00' N, 4° 22.00' W approx depth 75 m) and the intermediate L5 site (50° 10.80' N 4° 18.00' W approx depth 58 m. In brief, the data include: water temperature (from 1903); macronutrients (from 1934); dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity (from 2008); methane and nitrous oxide (from 2011); chlorophyll a (from 1992); HPLC-derived pigments (from 1999); <20 μm plankton by flow cytometry including bacteria (8 functional groups from 2007); phytoplankton by microscopy (6 functional groups from 1992); microplankton and mesozooplankton from FlowCam (6 groups from 2012), Noctiluca sp. dinoflagellate (from 1997); mesozooplankton by microscopy (8 groups from 1988); Calanus helgolandicus egg production rates (from 1992); fish larvae from Young Fish Trawl survey (4 groups from 1924); benthic macrofauna (4 groups from 2008); demersal fish (19 families from 2008); blue shark, Prionace glauca (from 1958); 16S alpha diversity for sediment and water column (from 2012). These data have varying coverage in time and depth resolution. The metadata tables describe each data set, provide pointers to the source data and other related Western Channel Observatory data sets and outputs not compiled here. We provide summaries of the main trends in seasonality and some major, climate related shifts that have been revealed over the last century. The data are available from Data Archive for Seabed Species and Habitats (DASSH) via the link http://doi.org/10.17031/645110fb81749 (McEvoy and Atkinson, 2023). Making the data fully accessible and including units of both abundance and biomass will stimulate a variety of uptakes. These may include uses as an educational resource for projects, for models and budgets or for analysis of seasonality and long-term change in a coupled benthic-pelagic system and for supporting UK and Northeast Atlantic policy and management.

show abstract

Identifying and protecting macroalgae detritus sinks toward climate change mitigation

Cited by 15 publications

References 50 publications

A blueprint for national assessments of the blue carbon capacity of kelp forests applied to Canada’s coastline

A blueprint for national assessments of the blue carbon capacity of kelp forests applied to Canada’s coastline

Carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation using macroalgae: a state of knowledge review

The Western Channel Observatory: a century of oceanographic, chemical and biological data compiled from pelagic and benthic habitats in the Western English Channel

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About