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The Calcium Carbonate Cycle in Seagrass Ecosystems
Published in Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Stephen Crooks, Tiffany G. Troxler, A Blue Carbon Primer, 2018
Hilary Kennedy, James W. Fourqurean, Stathys Papadimitriou
Blue carbon is the organic carbon produced and/or trapped by the seagrass meadow and stored in the underlying soil; the ultimate source of the carbon is the atmosphere (Nellemann et al. 2009). This function is dependent on seagrass ecosystems being net autotrophic, that is, where gross primary production (GPP) exceeds respiration (R) and there is a net transfer of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to seawater. Not all seagrass ecosystems are net autotrophic; Duarte et al. (2005) demonstrated that there is a threshold GPP, below which respiration dominates ecosystem metabolism and there is a net transfer of CO2 from seawater to the atmosphere. It is now becoming clear that the CaCO3 cycle also has a role to play in determining whether there is a net transfer of CO2 from the atmosphere to seawater or vice versa in a seagrass ecosystem.
Incentives for effectiveness
Published in Peter J. S. Jones, Governing Marine Protected Areas, 2014
This incentive is focused on direct payments for the flow of ecosystems services provided by a given MPA through formal markets. Marine PESs are currently focused mainly on blue carbon initiatives, which were discussed in Chapter 4 as an example of the pervasive nature of market forces. Blue carbon initiatives are the marine equivalent of terrestrial PES schemes such as that for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests (REDD+), in that they are a means of providing payments to sustain the use of mangrove, tidal marsh and seagrass habitats as carbon sinks to mitigate climate change. Blue carbon initiatives are still in their infancy, mainly confined to preliminary research, demonstration and pilot projects around the world. Whilst blue carbon initiatives have not yet matured into actual schemes connected to formal carbon trading markets, there are aspirations that they will do so, along with other marine PESs, and that MPAs will provide an ideal vehicle for such initiatives (Lau, 2012; Rees et al., 2012).
The Indian Scenario
Published in Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay, Victor J. Loveson, Sridhar D. Iyer, P.K. Sudarsan, Blue Economy of the Indian Ocean, 2020
Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay, Victor J. Loveson, Sridhar D. Iyer, P.K. Sudarsan
For a long time, terrestrial forests have been considered as major sinks for natural carbon but subsequently, it has been found that vegetated coastal ecosystems are also highly efficient carbon sinks. This led to the coining of the term “blue carbon” (Nellemann et al., 2009), which denotes the carbon that is captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems. During the daytime all living beings give off carbon dioxide (CO2, except plants that emit oxygen during the day and CO2 during the night) that is believed to lead to the greenhouse effect and climate change.
Linking climate change mitigation and adaptation through coastal green–gray infrastructure: a perspective
Published in Coastal Engineering Journal, 2021
Tomohiro Kuwae, Stephen Crooks
Barriers to obtaining such estimates and the inclusion of potential blue carbon ecosystems in national greenhouse gas inventories include the difficulty of quantifying (1) lateral and offshore (off-site) carbon transport (Orr 2014; Hill et al. 2015; Filbee-Dexter and Scheibling 2016; Jiao et al. 2018; Pessarrodona et al. 2018; Abo et al. 2019; Kokubu et al. 2019; Surgeon-Rogers et al. 2019) and (2) carbon accumulation and storage in the deep sea, where practically any carbon species can be sequestered for up to several thousand years (Krause-Jensen and Duarte 2016; Duarte and Krause-Jensen 2017), or in the water column as refractory dissolved organic carbon (Wada et al. 2008). One method of quantifying offshore carbon transport is a mass balance approach, in which the potential blue carbon ecosystems is regarded as a box and cross-boundary influxes and effluxes, such as terrestrial input and air–water CO2 exchange, along with internal production and consumption and carbon species transformations, are then determined (Watanabe et al. 2020). Other approaches would require the development of new observation technologies able to directly quantify fluxes of mega-particulates, such as algal bodies, at any water depth. Development of such breakthrough modeling and measurement technologies by engineers would enable potential blue carbon ecosystems to be included in national greenhouse gas inventories and incorporated into green–gray hybrid infrastructure projects.
Developing a nature-based coastal defence strategy for Australia
Published in Australian Journal of Civil Engineering, 2019
RebeccaL. Morris, Elisabeth M. A. Strain, Teresa M. Konlechner, Benedikt J. Fest, David M. Kennedy, Stefan K. Arndt, Stephen E. Swearer
Coastal habitats provide water purification through the absorption of inorganic contaminants and/or removal of organic particles through water filtration (Gifford et al. 2005; Galimany et al. 2017). Perhaps one of the most valuable co-benefits in terms of climate change mitigation is the potential of vegetated habitats to store carbon, termed ‘blue carbon’ (McLeod et al. 2011). Blue carbon ecosystems contain some of the highest carbon stocks per unit area on the planet and show potential to sequester large amounts of carbon over timeframes that are relevant to climate change mitigation (Donato et al. 2011; McLeod et al. 2011; Lovelock and Duarte 2019). Consequently, in Australia, the inclusion of blue carbon ecosystems in the Federal Emissions Reduction Fund are currently being discussed (Kelleway et al. 2017).
Green port structures and their ecosystem services in highly urbanized Japanese bays
Published in Coastal Engineering Journal, 2021
Tomonari Okada, Yugo Mito, Yoshihiro B. Akiyama, Kanae Tokunaga, Hiroaki Sugino, Takahiro Kubo, Toru Endo, Sosuke Otani, Susumu Yamochi, Yasunori Kozuki, Takayuki Kusakabe, Koji Otsuka, Ryoichi Yamanaka, Takaaki Shigematsu, Tomohiro Kuwae
This is an issue of global concern. In 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (https://www.cbd.int/) was adopted as a comprehensive international framework for preserving biodiversity and promoting the sustainable use of biological resources. Efforts are underway in coastal regions around the world to restore and create artificial wetlands, tidal flats, seaweed beds, and coral reefs with the ultimate goal of restoring and preserving coastal habitats. In Chesapeake Bay in the United States, for example, these efforts have included reducing nutrient inputs into the bay and restoring three major bay habitats (seagrass beds, oyster reefs, and tidal marshes) (Kemp et al. 2005). In recent years, ecosystems in the bay have been greatly affected by rising human populations and extensive agricultural activities, which increase nutrient input into the bay and cause severe eutrophication. As a consequence, many plant species (seagrasses and other submersed vascular plants) have declined. In San Francisco Bay, large-scale tidal wetland restoration projects have been implemented to counteract an approximately 80% reduction in tidal wetland area over the last 150 years (Marcus 2000; Brown 2003; Callaway et al. 2011). In the U.K., wetlands are being restored in areas that formerly existed as drained and farmed arable land to prevent biodiversity loss and increase the provision of ecosystem services (Kelvin et al. 2014). Mangroves have also been the focus of restoration efforts worldwide. As populations expand in coastal zones, mangroves are increasingly being cleared for coastal development, aquaculture, or resource use. Globally, about 20–35% of mangrove area has been lost since 1980 (Polidoro et al. 2010). In response, rehabilitation and restoration projects are becoming more prevalent, with some countries even achieving increases in mangrove area (Alongi 2002; Andradi-Brown et al. 2013). Similar efforts are underway for coral reefs, which have declined over the past several decades owing to disease and other stressors such as storms and temperature anomalies (Jaap 2000; Precht 2006; Lirman and Schopmeyer 2016). Seaweed-bed and mangrove restoration projects have also attracted attention in recent years as a means of enhancing blue carbon (i.e. coastal carbon stocks) for climate change mitigation (Pendleton. et al. 2012; Greiner et al. 2013; Alongi 2018; Kuwae and Hori 2019).