Kelps is a facet of blue carbon that holds the key to mitigating climate change. Its ability to capture and store carbon at a shorter time scale than land forests and its potential to grow globally has scientists looking at ways to best utilise this brown alga.
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What is Carbon Sequestration?
Carbon sequestration is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon can be captured and stored through nature-based and engineered processes. A nature-based process of carbon sequestration that has recently been under the lens is blue carbon, carbon captured by ocean and coastal ecosystems which function as carbon sinks.
Blue carbon is becoming an essential process to offset human forcing of carbon emissions. Specifically, research has shown that kelp, a facet of blue carbon, is able to capture and sequester carbon at a faster rate than land forests. We have heard of land forests being a large carbon sink but research is discovering the potential of kelp forests in the ocean.
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If you want to learn more about blue carbon, check out this article next: Blue Carbon Projects Can Be Instrumental in Combating Climate Change
Kelp and Kelp Forests
Kelp is a type of seaweed that grows in the ocean. More specifically, it is a brown algae consisting of a blade, stipe, and holdfast. Some larger species of kelp contain gas bladders called pneumatocysts. Gas bladders, clear waters, and location are important for kelp to absorb sunlight from the ocean’s surface to conduct photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, kelp absorbs sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to produce sugar and oxygen. Absorption of carbon dioxide and production of oxygen is important for living things and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our oceans and atmosphere. Similar to forests on land, kelp will grow in concentrated areas with other kelp resulting in a kelp forest. Kelp is seen along rocky shorelines in upwelling zones where the nutrients are high and ocean temperatures are cool.
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Kelp Growth and Role in Carbon Sequestration
Depending on the species, the lifespan of kelp can vary from up to a year to longer. During that time they can grow up to two to 30 metres (98 ft) tall during their life and up to 61 centimetres (2 ft) per day. This rate of growth means more photosynthesis potential, thus carbon dioxide being absorbed to help the kelp grow. When kelp dies, the most of the carbon dioxide it has absorbed is locked up in its tissues and transported to the ocean floor. Kelps ability to grow faster in relation to land forests gives it the advantage to sequester carbon at a faster rate.
A study published in the scientific journal Nature reported kelp forests in Australia’s Great Southern Reef sequester 1.3–2.8 teragrams of carbon per year (Tg C year−1), amounting to more than 30% of total blue carbon stored and sequestered around the Australian continent, and ~ 3% of the total global blue carbon. There is great potential for kelp forests to help offset carbon emissions.
According to a BBC report, globally, seaweeds (including kelp) are thought to sequester nearly 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year – as much as New York State’s annual emissions. Moreover, the article suggests that 48 million square kilometres of the world’s oceans are suitable for seaweed cultivation.
Innovative Design
A company called Running Tide has developed a technology to sequester carbon using kelp’s potential through innovative design. They create and distribute buoys made of forestry residue and limestone, and seaweed with kelp into the ocean. The limestone lessens ocean acidification, kelp captures carbon through photosynthesis, and after three months the buoy and kelp sinks then is buried deep in the ocean.
Want to Monitor Kelp Forests?
Kelpwatch.org is open source data that uses machine learning algorithms and remote sensing to quantify kelp forests and how they are changing over time.
You might also like: Blue Carbon Credits Emerge as Potential New Market for Global Sustainability
Dr. Pessarrodona, who is also a post-doctoral researcher at Conservation International, said: "globally, kelp and seaweed forests sequester as much carbon as the Amazon rainforest, but only a fraction of that is stored in coastal sediment and the deep sea.
Kelp forests provide an estimated value of $500 billion to the world and capture 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from seawater each year. Most of kelp's economic benefits come from creating habitat for fish and by sequestering nitrogen and phosphorus.
When thinking about carbon sequestration, we need to focus on permanent solutions. Coastal ecosystems sequester away surprisingly large amounts of carbon – they can sequester up to 20 times more carbon per acre than land forests.
The U.S. Forest Service reports that the nation's forests and forest products offset nearly 16 percent of domestic carbon dioxide emissions by storing 866 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, a quantity equivalent to the annual emissions from 50 million gas- or diesel-fueled vehicles.
The rate of C sequestration by seaweeds remains uncertain but it is estimated that if all the suitable habitats for seaweed were actually inhabited by seaweed (e.g., if large-scale seaweed afforestation were to occur), these ecosystems would sequester about 0.173 Pg C yr-1 (equivalent to 0.635 Pg CO2 yr-1) – about 11% ...
Kelp ecosystems take up inorganic carbon (including carbon dioxide) and convert it into organic biomass making it a key component within the carbon cycle. This biomass breaks off and gets transported with ocean currents eventually being eaten, decomposed or sequestered.
This is where photosynthetic organisms become important; especially microscopic algae, which can capture atmospheric carbon up to 50 x more efficiently than higher plants [1] and convert it into biomass via photosynthesis. This is one vital tool to address climate change.
As a producer of aquatic environments, kelp aids in the absorption of CO2 and the release of oxygen into the atmosphere. Other living things use this O2 for cellular respiration. Other living things in the watery environment will suffer if kelp is not available to absorb CO2 or create O2.
We provide evidence that most seaweed forests, which drawdown the largest carbon flux of any vegetated habitat in the coastal ocean, are indeed net autotrophic ecosystems (i.e. carbon sinks), and export substantial amounts of organic matter that may contribute to carbon sequestration.
High energy storms or swells can uproot entire plants and break away fronds. Characterized by severe storms and warm water, El Niño Southern Oscillation Events, often devastate kelp forests.
What threats do kelp forests face? Unfortunately, kelp forests today face a variety of threats, such as commercial kelp harvesting, pollution, and climate change, which exacerbates El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) events and negatively impacts kelp reproduction and survival.
They already are, at least to some extent. Natural seaweed beds and seaweed farms may be sequestering a few hundred million tons of carbon dioxide each year via their natural processes. This natural sequestration process is hard to measure, making carbon financing for these solutions challenging.
The simplest way to scaling carbon capture is by encouraging our natural environment to grow, while preserving what already exists. Reforesting, rewilding or the reclamation of agricultural land will allow carbon capture on the largest scales, as will removing pollutants from our seas, lakes and oceans.
The live oak is the most efficient carbon capturing tree, it being able to sequester some 10,994 CO2 equivalent over its lifetime. Ranking second is the East Palatka holly, with a lifelong carbon fixation of 7,321 CO2 equivalent.
Carbon sequestration secures carbon dioxide to prevent it from entering the Earth's atmosphere. The idea is to stabilize carbon in solid and dissolved forms so that it doesn't cause the atmosphere to warm.
Shrubberies and hedgerows are really effective carbon sinks, and shrubs can often work well in gardens that are too small for trees. Fast-growing plants and those with extensive root systems are particularly effective at capturing and holding on to atmospheric carbon.
In giant kelp plants, most cycling of carbon works this way: the seaweed takes in carbon through photosynthesis; marine life such as sea urchins graze on the kelp to provide them life, inhaling the carbon. It then moves through the food web relatively quickly as one organism consumes another.
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