Protecting and restoring Europe’s blue carbon ecosystems
The EU has over 100 000 km of coastline and an Exclusive Economic Zone of 7 044 342 square kilometres across five sea basins. Comprising cold water coral beds, estuarine nesting grounds, coastal forests and much more, marine and coastal ecosystems play a significant role in the global carbon cycle, representing the largest long-term sink for carbon in the biosphere. Yet many of Europe’s marine and coastal habitats are under threat. Fisheries have been overexploited, and the seabed damaged by dredging and bottom trawling. Habitat loss, urbanisation and coastal development, invasive alien species, and pollution have all left a significant negative impact. Once degraded or lost, these ecosystems are likely to release most of their carbon back into the atmosphere, feeding the climate crises. Over the past decade, there has been a marked increase in research efforts to understand the ocean and blue carbon sinks and explore their potential in climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation frameworks. While the potential climatic benefits of blue carbon ecosystems can only be a modest addition to rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, blue carbon ecosystems can help reduce the risks and impacts of climate change, with multiple co-benefits. The latest entry in the CORDIS Projects Info Pack series, Blue carbon for biodiversity and climate action, highlights 15 EU-funded research projects closing important gaps in understanding, observing, modelling and predicting the natural blue carbon component of ecosystem services. Other highly relevant ongoing projects will be presented in a further Info Pack. The projects in this Pack are dedicated to improving our understanding of blue carbon processes and advancing research in this essential field of study. They cover a range of approaches from new tools and techniques to investigate how carbon moves through ocean ecosystems to delineating how blue carbon ecosystem services can be placed at the heart of socio-economic, climate and environmental policymaking. Together, they highlight the need to understand – and protect – Europe’s marine habitats, laying a path for a holistic approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, intertwined with biodiversity protection and conservation efforts, the benefits of which will be felt far beyond Europe’s riverbanks and coastlines. To read the Projects Info Pack, visit: Projects Info Pack on blue carbon for biodiversity and climate action
Keywords
blue carbon, ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus, climate mitigation and adaptation, natural carbon sequestration, ecosystem services, marine biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, functional ecology, maritime spatial planning, ecosystem-based approach