Abstract
The term Blue Carbon (BC) was first coined a decade ago to describe the disproportionately large contribution of coastal vegetated ecosystems to global carbon sequestration. The role of BC in climate change mitigation and adaptation has now reached international prominence. To help prioritise future research, we assembled leading experts in the field to agree upon the top-ten pending questions in BC science. Understanding how climate change affects carbon accumulation in mature BC ecosystems and during their restoration was a high priority. Controversial questions included the role of carbonate and macroalgae in BC cycling, and the degree to which greenhouse gases are released following disturbance of BC ecosystems. Scientists seek improved precision of the extent of BC ecosystems; techniques to determine BC provenance; understanding of the factors that influence sequestration in BC ecosystems, with the corresponding value of BC; and the management actions that are effective in enhancing this value. Overall this overview provides a comprehensive road map for the coming decades on future research in BC science.
Highlights
1234567890():,; The term Blue Carbon (BC) was first coined a decade ago to describe the disproportionately large contribution of coastal vegetated ecosystems to global carbon sequestration
By 2005, it was shown that seagrass, mangrove, and tidal marsh sediments represent 50% of all C sequestered in marine sediments[8]. This mounting evidence for such a major role in C sequestration provided the impetus for the Blue Carbon report[1], where the term “Blue Carbon” was first coined, and that led to the development of international and national BC initiatives
Scientists’ perspectives on the 10 key fundamental questions in BC science We identified and selected scientists from among the leading and senior authors of the 50 most-cited papers on BC science (ISI Web of Science access date 22 June 2017), together with the participants in a workshop on BC organized at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, in March 2017
Summary
1234567890():,; The term Blue Carbon (BC) was first coined a decade ago to describe the disproportionately large contribution of coastal vegetated ecosystems to global carbon sequestration. We propose an open discussion to refocus the current research agenda, reconcile new ideas with criticisms, and integrate those findings into a stronger scientific framework (Box 1) This effort will address the urgent need for refined understanding of the role of vegetated coastal ecosystems in climate change mitigation and adaptation. This mounting evidence for such a major role in C sequestration provided the impetus for the Blue Carbon report[1], where the term “Blue Carbon” was first coined, and that led to the development of international and national BC initiatives (e.g., http://thebluecarboninitiative.org) This led to research efforts to propose emissions factors from loss and restoration of BC ecosystems for C accounting[9], provide empirical evidence of emissions following disturbance and C drawdown from restoration[10,11,12], map the C density of mangrove soils globally[13], and explore the potential of BC ecosystems to support climate-change adaptation[2]. The first global estimates of potential losses of BC resulting from anthropogenic disturbance combined changes in the global distribution of BC ecosystems with simple estimates of conversion (remineralisation) of stored BC per unit
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