Blue carbon acts as
mitigator of climate change
Mangrove tree process will
limit atmospheric rises in temperature, experts say
By Nada AlTaher, Staff
Reporter, Published: 19:45 March 17, 2013
View from the Eastern
Mangroves hotel apartments on the eastern ring road in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi: The Abu Dhabi
Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI) and the Environment Agency – Abu
Dhabi (EAD) launched a Blue Carbon project, which aims to study the correlation
between the storage of carbon in ground beneath mangrove trees, seagrass
meadows and saltwater marshlands in relation to climate change.
“Blue carbon is a fairly new
term in the world of environmental assessments. Unlike other greens, they store
carbon beneath the ground they live on, not just in their own bodies,” said
Edwin Grandcourt, Manager, Marine Assessment and Conservation Section, EAD’s
Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector.
In January a team of
international experts introduced the study’s methodology to start the
measurments. This practice is unique in the Arab world and is only being
conducted in Madagascar and Indonesia at the moment, according to experts.
“These coastal ecosystems
continuously isolate carbon from the atmosphere sometimes at a rate that is
faster than tropical rainforests. This helps mitigate climate change by
trapping greenhouse gases, which are normally the cause of temperature rises in
the atmosphere,” he added.
In an attempt to study this
process further, scientists will study areas extending across the emirate of Abu Dhabi from its Eastern Ghantoot
region to Bu Tinah Island in the west. The registry of measurements will
conclude in May this year.
“This is a guidance project
aimed to increase the quality of spatial data because of the application
currently being developed. It will also help lead the way for other projects
aiming to further the studies we made,” said Ebrahim Bugla, Head of the Marine
Assessment and Monitoring Unit at EAD.
After the project ends in
October, available results will be given to decision-makers in order to produce
policies for the betterment of coastal ecosystems in the emirate.
To the untrained eye, they
may look like any other plant in the region. However, hidden in the sediment
beneath these mangrove trees lies a mitigator of climate change, a source of
nutrition for creatures below the soil and a possible source of fossil fuels
thousands of years from now.
