Sydney: Sex promotes greater growth of seagrass, a vegetation that doubles as a huge carbon sink and shelters marine species, reveals a study.
Seagrass meadows grew predominately via vegetative growth or cloning, using rhizomes that spread under the seabed, then send out roots and shoots, says a recent research at the University of Western Australia Oceans Institute.
But the researchers found that seagrass also relied a great deal on sexual reproduction involving male and female flowers, pollens, seeds and seedlings.
Professor Gary Kendrick, who led the Oceans Institute study, said healthy seagrass populations were extremely important for coastal stability and carbon sequestration, according to a university statement.
Last year, Jim Fourqurean, a professor also from the Oceans Institute, showed that extensive seagrass meadows in Shark Bay, on Western Australian coast, act as a massive carbon sink which stores more than $8 (Australian) billion worth of carbon dioxide, the journal Bioscience reported.
Kendrick said seagrass also formed an important habitat for many fish species, including Western Australia's juvenile western rock lobster -- the most valuable single-species fishery in Australia -- and were a source of fish protein for many coastal communities in South East Asia and Africa.
"Clearly, the process of dispersing (seeds) over these hundreds of kilometres is an important mechanism for keeping connectivity occurring between populations of the one species," Kendrick said.
Australian and US researchers examined the key role of seed dispersal in maintaining seagrass populations. They used existing DNA molecular markers to infer genetic connectivity of seagrass species.
16 January 2012/ by Struan Stevenson/ Scotsman Online
WE have long known the importance of our forests and peat bogs in capturing and storing CO2.
These “green carbon” systems are the world’s natural carbon capture and storage system and a crucial factor in climate change mitigation, with forests annually absorbing around 15 per cent of global CO2 emissions from transport and factories.
Less well known, but no less crucial, is the role played by our “blue carbon” marine ecosystems. Every day, we add about 22 million metric tonnes of CO2 to our oceans, meaning blue carbon sinks sequester around 55 per cent of the biological carbon captured in the world. As global CO2 emissions increase, particularly among emerging economies, impacting weather patterns and affecting food production and livelihoods, blue carbon capture is a resource that we cannot afford to squander.
An international conference kicks off in Brussels this week looking at how we can put in place the building blocks for a thriving global blue carbon system. It will look at practical ways in which we can reduce the rate of marine and coastal ecosystem degradation. That means carbon credits for CO2 sequestered in blue carbon sinks must be traded, just as they are with green carbon, while a global blue carbon fund to pay for the protection and enhancement of remaining marine ecosystems must be established.
Energy efficiency in marine transport, including fisheries, aquaculture and maritime tourism sectors is also significant. And we need to encourage environmentally sound, ocean-based energy production, exploiting natural materials like algae and seaweed. Industrial schemes to cover coastal areas and ocean floors with wave, tidal and offshore wind farms, must be subject to rigorous impact assessments, to ensure that they do not further damage blue carbon ecosystems.
Blue carbon lies at the very heart of the global warming debate. Over the past 70 years we have lost around 20 per cent of the habitats that play this vital role in CO2 reduction. That trend has to be reversed. Our survival depends on it.
• Struan Stevenson is a Conservative Euro MP for Scotland and President of the European Parliament’s Climate Change, Biodiversity & Sustainable Development Intergroup.
Interesting article on the ocean's understudied role in climate change. See video at end of story which highlights research on overfising disrupting oceanic carbon sink:
"...The Patagonian shelf absorbs about 17 million metric tons of carbon per year, equivalent to all the carbon contained in 100 thousand hectares of rain forest. The Patagonian shelf break is one of the most important fisheries regions on earth. Today most experiments agree that marine ecosystems are badly overfished and that at the present pace no fisheries are sustainable. A decrease in fish population could eventually affect zooplankton and phytoplankton communities thereby disrupted by (sic) the ability of the oceans to capture CO2. Such alterations of the marine ecosystem would be analogous to the impact of land use change on the continental carbon budget. These changes are still poorly understood and may bring with them unexpected surprises. Monitoring ocean productivity, carbon budgets and fisheries is important to understand options and interventions in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions."
Oceans make up 70% of the earth’s surface and hold 90% of natural carbon. So why do they only make up a small portion of the research on the global impact of carbon emissions?
The role of “blue carbon” in climate change is getting more interest from the international community. With a growing body of research exploring how an increase in atmospheric carbon is impacting the chemistry and biology of ocean ecosystems — and thus influencing climate change — people are starting to pay more attention.
However, it’s still not a well-explored concept outside the scientific community. At the COP climate talks in Durban, for example, there is endless talk about atmospheric carbon and about how to control terrestrial carbon emissions through deforestation programs like REDD+. But there are still very few mentions of oceanic carbon.
“Hopefully, by exposing the science to higher level decision makers, we will bridge a gap of communication for that necessary understanding” of the role that oceans play in climate change, said Alberto Piola, an oceanographer with the Naval Hydrographic Service in Argentina, speaking at a side event on Blue Carbon at COP 17 this week.
We can look at Blue Carbon in two ways. The first is the climate change impact of releasing natural carbon from the oceans through the destruction of ecosystems. Most research in this area is focused on near-shore ecosystems like mangroves and sea grasses. The second is the impact of burning fossil fuels on ocean ecosystems by adding geologically-trapped CO2 to the carbon cycle.
Considering the immense shift already underway in the oceans, it’s amazing that the concept hasn’t gotten more attention in the international negotiations on addressing climate change.
In pre-industrial times, the ocean was a source of CO2, and the atmosphere was a sink. But the release of staggering amounts of geologic carbon has made the oceans a net sink.
We’ve reversed the natural carbon cycle in about 200 years.
How much carbon does it take to do that? Consider this: We burn 9.1 petagrams of fossil fuels per year. That’s the equivalent of a coal train wrapped around the world 63 times – or about 2.5 million kilometers. And that train is only growing.
“Now you get a sense of how much CO2 we add to the atmosphere,” said Chris Sabine, director of the Pacific Marine Environment Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who outlined the numbers in a presentation.
“This pool of carbon should not be a natural part of the cycle on the time scales that we’re looking at. The terrestrial sinks and oceans are trying to take that up,” said Sabine.
Every day, we add 22 million metric tons of CO2 into the oceans. But our ability to accurately gauge the impact of those additions is still evolving.
“The models are very divergent at this point. We still need more data,” said Sabine. “We do know that resulting changes in chemistry and warming are expected to significantly impact ecosystems.”
The trends are certainly alarming. Alongside the dramatic reversal of the carbon cycle, we’ve seen a commensurate increase in the acidity of the oceans, greater fluctuations in temperatures, and an increase in oxygen depleted waters – a phenomenon known as hypoxia.
In more acidic conditions, organisms cannot use calcium carbonate for growing shells. Researchers have called acidification “a ticking time bomb” for ocean ecosystems and fisheries. And the combination of increased levels of CO2 and decreasing O2 levels can affect the temperature tolerance curve in organisms, making it harder for them to survive. The cascading impacts of these changes could be immense — but it’s still difficult to predict exactly how ocean ecosystems will respond, said Pedro Monteiro, the principal oceanographer with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, talking to Climate Progress.
In order to better predict how CO2 levels will influence oceans, Monteiro and his team are using O2 as a proxy. Because data sets for O2 are much longer than for CO2, researchers can examine the impact that fluxes in carbon and oxygen uptake have historically had on the oceans.
Until recently, research on blue carbon has been focused on how near-shore ecosystems can sequester carbon. But there’s increasing international coordination on projects looking at the role of the deep ocean. Monteiro calls the CO2 fluxes from the deep ocean “game changers” in how they influence oceanic chemistry and biology, and potentially release massive amounts of greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.
“The exchanges are orders of magnitude larger,” explained Monteiro.”We’re trying to recognize all the different pools. What we’re seeing now is a shift from relatively small-scale regional studies to international research. And no single country can do them.”
Below is a film played at COP 17 on research in Argentina being conducted by Alberto Piola. The film was produced by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research:
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For additional information see IAI's press release for COP 17):
The IAI hosted a side-event during COP-17 in Durban, South Africa on “Blue carbon research: biological, physical, chemical processes in oceanic carbon sinks and sources”. Based on IAI research in the South Atlantic, we discussed how ocean circulation affects blue carbon: the links between biological carbon sequestration, chemical absorption, physical transport and possible re-release to the atmosphere; and what this implies for carbon management options
"Blue Carbon Policy Framework" is Released at U.N. Climate Talks in Durban; Highlights Results of First Meeting of International Blue Carbon Policy Working Group
Durban, South Africa/Arlington, VA — The first policy framework outlining activities needed to include coastal marine areas such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses into the work of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been presented in a report by IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and Conservation International (CI), two of the leading members of the Blue Carbon Initative.
The report, "Blue Carbon Policy Framework" (PDF), outlines the opportunities for including the conservation of coastal areas in the climate change policies and financing processes currently being negotiated in Durban. The study also highlights the need for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the voluntary carbon market to take coastal marine ecosystems into account.
"The oceans and marine biodiversity are crucial in regulating the global climate", says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director of IUCN's Global Marine and Polar Programme. "Oceans absorb 93.4 percent of the heat produced by climate change as well as one third of human-induced carbon dioxide. Coastal areas also have an exceptional capacity to store carbon. But currently natural solutions that the marine world offers to climate change challenges are rarely taken into account in international climate change policy."
The UNFCCC and the mechanism known as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus conservation), support the conservation and restoration of terrestrial forests as a way to reduce the effects of climate change. But the importance of coastal carbon sinks, such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses, is not yet fully recognized by the Convention.
Although coastal ecosystems cover only one to two percent of the area covered by forests globally, improving their management can supplement efforts to reduce emissions from tropical forest degradation. A square kilometer of a coastal ecosystem can store up to five times more carbon than a square kilometer of mature tropical forests. But currently these areas are being destroyed three to four times faster than forests, releasing substantial amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the ocean, and contributing to climate change.
"We think this recognition is critical," explains report co-author Dr. Emily Pidgeon, Conservation International's Senior Director of Marine Strategic Initiatives and a leading Blue Carbon conservation scientist. "The management of carbon in coastal systems can already be included in a number of UNFCCC and REDD+ components. This plan was produced to help detail what we see as key next steps in terms of a full integration of blue carbon into existing initiatives."
"We now have scientific evidence that conserving mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrasses and other blue carbon habitats is a very precious tool in our fight against climate change," says Pierre-Yves Cousteau, IUCN's Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Cousteau Divers, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the marine world. "These muddy coastal areas also help us adapt to the changing climate. They protect local communities from storms and regulate the quality of coastal water. Increased recognition of their importance among the climate change community will hopefully improve the way they're managed and conserved."
"We need to convince the broader policy community that blue carbon has a strong scientific basis and that it should be taken into account as a valuable tool in our suite of global efforts to confront and adapt to the impacts of climate change. We also need decision makers to understand that this tool requires adequate funding to maximize the many benefits it provides to people," adds Pidgeon
6 December 2011/ by Lisa Greber/ Global Environmental Governance Project
In North Durban, the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve is a 76 hectare reserve with the largest population of mangrove trees still remaining in the Durban area. Mangroves are at first sight ungainly trees, with rough bark and contorted branches, but they are a critical part of coastal ecosystems, providing shoreline protection from storm surge and beach erosion, and habitat for numerous species. The plants survive in the difficult conditions of the intertidal, submerged in salty water, and often in anoxic, oxygen deprived mud. Their roots, if remaining fully submerged, can offer hard surfaces for the growth of barnacles, sponges, and oysters.
This is the life behind the phrase “blue carbon” heard throughout COP17.
The loss of blue carbon means that globally coastal ecosystems – mangroves, salt marshes, eelgrass, and shellfish – have been lost to development, over-harvesting, and disease. Mangrove forests once likely covered the Durban coastal area, as did salt marshes along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Restoring these habitats may hold promise to mitigate the effects of global warming, both as carbon storage and as shoreline protection against rising seas. Restoration also supports the complex ecosystems of organisms that find their homes there.
Anamarija Frankic, director of the Green Boston Harbor Project (GBH) at the Center for Governance and Sustainability is not sure if the new language will be sufficient to encourage communities to restore coastal and marine habitats such as mangroves, salt marshes and shellfish beds. Little has been done to protect them before, she says, even knowing their tremendous ecological services and values. But there are hopeful signs. On some beaches around Durban, patches of mangrove are growing.
The Umgeni River wanders some 230 km before opening into the Beachwood mangrove reserve. In Boston, the Charles, the Neponset, and the Mystic Rivers drain into Boston Harbor. The health of “blue carbon” depends on the watersheds upstream, on the choices upland communities make to protect the water, as much as it does on the restoration efforts on the shore. The water connects us.
Each harbor is different, each one is similar. GBH has started a network of global green harbors to share best practices and community around the globe.
We were always a blue planet, says Anamarija, meaning the rough wild Indian Ocean of Durban’s shores, water that has traveled its way around the world. In the end it is not the name for “blue carbon” that matters, but the mangroves themselves, and our collective willingness to care for our particular coastal habitats and harbors in the context of a global whole.
(Based on reports from Durban from GBH Director Anamarija Frankic)
‘We will make the oceans blue, bind carbon and create green jobs’
4 December 2011/ by Magnus Borgen (Bellona), Charles Digges (translator)/ Durban Climate Summit
From left to right: Ik-Kyo Chung of Pusan National University in South Korea; Dorothée Herr of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Bellona President Frederic Hauge.
DURBAN, South Africa – Sustainable marine biomass was on the agenda when Bellona hosted a debate at its venue at the Durban UN Climate Summit.
“Marine biomass has vast theoretical potential internationally and can play an important role as a key solution in future climate treaties,”* said Bellona President Frederic Hauge.
“Now we are discussing environmental issues I am passionate about, and Bellona will do much work in the future. What we are talking about now may be the next major new weapon in the fight against climate change,” said Hauge as Bellona presented its integrated aquaculture program to a large international audience from four continents in Bellona’s delegation room Friday.
From COP14 in Poznan for COP17 in Durban
This side event in Durban was held due to a side event at COP14 in Poznan, Poland where Haugue and Svend Søyland, Bellona’s adviser on international energy and climate issues were present. At COP14, Hauge and Søyland attended an event during which South Korean Professor Ik-Kyo Chung from Pusan National University was speaking of his work on how greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced with the use of algae, seaweed and kelp. Chung presented encouraging and positive results of his university research on how seaweed farming can be a mitigation tactic to reduce greenhouse gasses that would be released into the atmosphere.
Chung argued here in Durban that is very important to establish a system within the international climate regime where one could get certified interim emissions reductions from algae growing in the sea, as there are major climate gains to be achieved via a solid focus on this type of marine biomass.
Along with Bellona and South Korea’s Chung, Dorothée Herr of the International Union for Conservation of Nature was also on the dais in Bellona’s conference room. The IUCN is a recognized international organization with a membership base of more than 1000 organizations and 10,000 scientists and experts.
“Climate negotiators should focus on creating incentives for preserving marine ecosystems such as mangroves, and punish those who harm it,” said Herr to those assembles.
Herr pointed out that the oceans are a very important habitat, and that the process of carbon bonding in water-bound saline plants is higher than that of plants on land. Herr therefore presented good arguments that mangrove forests at sea should be implemented in the UN’s REDD+ rainforest preservation mechanism at the climate negotiations. Carbon sequestration at sea, also called Blue Carbon, has 20 percent of the potential that REDD has.
“Mangrove binds much carbon in the soil, and the IUCN will work for this to get increased attention as an important international climate measure,” said Herr.
Too many people think small thoughts about the environment and climate
Frederic Hauge opened his speech by pointing out that if one were to cover the biofuel needs of the world’s aviation industry by cultivating soybeans, one would need to cultivate an area the size of Europe and the Ukraine.
“If the same amount of biomass production should take place through algae production on land, then one would only need an area the size of Belgium,” said Hauge.
Hauge argued that there are great opportunities for all coastal nations around the world to see the exciting low cost synergies between the fishing industry, offshore renewable energy and the cultivation of seaweed and kelp. He noted that there is a very large theoretical potential for offshore wind turbines becoming a very good habitat for fish and marine biomass.
“We don’t have all the answers just yet, but working further with integrated fish farming in the fight against climate change is doubtless something that must have more resources,” said Hauge.
The world community needs to create green jobs for 2 billion people who need jobs the next 20 years, both people and animals need food, we need medicine and Omega 3 and not least, we need much more bioenergy, said Hauge enthusiastically. Hauge also pointed out Bellona’s algae work in Madagascar as an example of how developing coastal strip counties have more theoretical potential for development than many think. “Bellona’s focus on integrated aquaculture is part of a tradition where we focus on solution-oriented work. There are too many people who think small thoughts about climate change,” said Hauge.
“I think it's very inspiring to work with environmental protection and be here in Durban where we can work to make the sky blue with our CCS work, the desert green with the Sahara Forest Project, and to make the ocean blue and exploit very exciting synergies with Bellona’s coming Ocean Forest Project,” said a very optimistic Hauge.
Oceans Day at Durban Discusses Blue Carbon 3 December 2011/ by iisd
Oceans Day 2011, part of the Durban Climate Change Conference, addressed various issues related to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), including the concept of blue carbon and the green economy.
Oceans Day took place on 3 December 2011, on the sidelines of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa.
Participants engaged in a session on "Oceans and coasts at the UNFCCC and at Rio+20: The need for concerted action," with a number of speakers underlining the need for strengthened blue carbon policy capacity, and for accelerating the uptake of ocean and coastal-based carbon mitigation approaches. Biliana Cicin-Sain, President, Global Ocean Forum, underscored the importance of achieving greater equity in management of fisheries with greater benefits for coastal communities, noting the relevance of this issue in the Rio+20 process.
The meeting forwarded a Chair's statement to COP 17, in which the global oceans community calls attention to the need to develop an integrated programme for oceans and coasts within and beyond the UNFCCC. It recommends various actions, including deepening understanding and policy approaches to support blue carbon.
Oceans Day was co-organized by the Global Ocean Forum, in association with a number of partners, including the Government of South Africa, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (IOC-UNESCO), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the GEF/UNDP/UN Environment Programme (UNEP) African LME projects. [IISD RS Coverage] [Oceans Day at Durban Co-Chairs’ Statement]
