Tag: Blue carbon

Counting on … day 195

18th  October 2024

Scientific concern about the adverse affects of climate change in the Earth capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, extends to the land as well as the oceans. 

“In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon…

“A paper published in July found that while the total amount of carbon absorbed by forests between 1990 and 2019 was steady, it varied substantially by region. The boreal forests – home to about a third of all carbon found on land, which stretch across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada and Alaska – have seen a sharp fall in the amount of carbon they absorb, down more than a third due to climate crisis-related beetle outbreaks, fire and clearing for timber.

“Combined with the declining resilience of the Amazon and drought conditions in parts of the tropics, the hot conditions in the northern forests helped drive the collapse of the land sink in 2023 – causing a spike in the rate of atmospheric carbon.”

This shortfall or decline in the carbon absorbing capacity of the natural world is a serious concern when we are relying on that capacity to achieve a net zero target. Indeed if this persists, we will have to reduce our human enduced carbon emissions faster and at a greater rate.

Counting on … day 194

17th October 2024

Blue carbon is not just the carbon absorbed in the seas around our coasts. It is an ongoing process that encompasses oceans and deep seabeds. However scientists are concerned that the process is being adversely affected by rising temperatures.

“It begins each day at nightfall. As the light disappears, billions of zooplankton, crustaceans and other marine organisms rise to the ocean surface to feed on microscopic algae, returning to the depths at sunrise. The waste from this frenzy – Earth’s largest migration of creatures – sinks to the ocean floor, removing millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

“This activity is one of thousands of natural processes that regulate the Earth’s climate. Together, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions. But as the Earth heats up, scientists are increasingly concerned that those crucial processes are breaking down….

“Greenland’s glaciers and Arctic ice sheets are melting faster than expected, which is disrupting the Gulf Stream ocean current and slows the rate at which oceans absorb carbon. For the algae-eating zooplankton, melting sea ice is exposing them to more sunlight – a shift scientists say could keep them in the depths for longer, disrupting the vertical migration that stores carbon on the ocean floor.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/14/nature-carbon-sink-collapse-global-heating-models-emissions-targets-evidence-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Counting on … day 193

16th October 2024

Blue carbon is carbon that is absorbed and stored in marine environments. The Wildlife Trusts, The RSOB and WWF have put together a useful report on the importance of blue carbon.

“Over the past few decades, great strides have been made

in recognising the importance of carbon storage in terrestrial

environments … but we’ve largely neglected the vast potential of

‘blue carbon’ found in our coastal and marine areas, which cover three

times the land area of the UK. Marine habitats, including seagrass

meadows, saltmarshes, and subtidal sediments like mud and sand on

the seabed, act as incredible stores of carbon.

“Currently blue carbon remains underappreciated and largely

unprotected within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and marine spatial

planning processes have held little to no regard for the significant

role our seas play in carbon storage. This, combined with ongoing

human pressures that can affect the ability of our seas to effectively

capture and store carbon, means that we are failing to make the most

of this critical natural resource. … 

“Through effective planning that includes the protection of blue carbon habitats and

important areas for biodiversity, we can support climate mitigation,

protect nature and minimise the impacts of activities at sea such as

bottom-towed fishing gears and offshore development. We also need

investment in coastal blue carbon habitat restoration projects to

increase the environment’s potential to store carbon and help tackle

the climate crisis. 

“Protecting these marine carbon stores matters not just ecologically

but also politically. The UK helped champion the creation and

agreement of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity’s Global

Biodiversity Framework, which drives the 30×30 commitments to

both protect at least 30%, and to restore at least 30% of nature by

2030.” https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/2024_Blue carbon 12pp_A4_Landscape_New_Digital.pdf

Blue carbon https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blue-carbon