MSGID: 1:317/3 6476cda2   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Mitigating climate change through restoration of coastal ecosystems   
      
      
     Date:   
         May 30, 2023   
     Source:   
         Georgia Institute of Technology   
     Summary:   
         Researchers are proposing a novel pathway through which coastal   
         ecosystem restoration can permanently capture carbon dioxide from   
         the atmosphere.   
      
         Seagrass and mangroves -- known as blue carbon ecosystems --   
         naturally capture carbon through photosynthesis, which converts   
         carbon dioxide into living tissue.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
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   One of the primary drivers of climate change is excess greenhouse gases   
   like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mitigating climate change in   
   the coming century will require both decarbonization -- electrifying   
   the power grid or reducing fossil fuel-guzzling transportation -- and   
   removing already existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a process   
   called carbon dioxide removal.   
      
   Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University   
   are proposing a novel pathway through which coastal ecosystem restoration   
   can permanently capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Seagrass and   
   mangroves -- known as blue carbon ecosystems -- naturally capture carbon   
   through photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into living tissue.   
      
   "Mangroves and seagrasses extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere all   
   day long and turn it into biomass," said Chris Reinhard, an associate   
   professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS). "Some   
   of this biomass can get buried in sediments, and if it stays there,   
   then you've basically just removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."   
   Restoring these ecosystems could potentially benefit local flora and fauna   
   and help to energize coastal economies. But Reinhard and colleagues now   
   suggest that restoring them could also remove additional carbon through   
   a novel pathway while combating increasing acidity in the ocean.   
      
   In May, they presented their research in "Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement   
   Through Restoration of Blue Carbon Ecosystems" in Nature Sustainability.   
      
   Carbon 101 There are two major types of carbon that cycle through the   
   Earth system: organic carbon and inorganic carbon. Organic carbon is   
   contained in living matter, such as algae, plants, animals, and even   
   humans. This form of carbon can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere   
   temporarily, but if it becomes buried in sediments at the seafloor, it   
   can lead to permanent carbon dioxide removal. Inorganic carbon can also   
   be found in many forms, including rocks and minerals, but is present as   
   a significant dissolved component of ocean water.   
      
   Roughly 30% of the carbon emitted by human activities since the   
   industrial revolution is now stored as dissolved inorganic carbon in the   
   ocean. Although carbon dioxide stored as organic carbon can be disrupted,   
   effectively redistributing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, carbon   
   dioxide removal by inorganic carbon is potentially much more durable.   
      
   "Even if you change the way a coastal ecosystem restoration project is   
   operating, potentially remobilizing previously stored organic carbon,   
   inorganic carbon capture is largely a one-way street," said Mojtaba   
   Fakhraee, lead author of the study and former postdoctoral researcher   
   in EAS. "So even if a massive ecosystem disruption in the future   
   undoes organic carbon storage, the inorganic carbon that has been   
   captured will still be in the ocean permanently."  Capturing Carbon,   
   Counteracting Acidity Coastal ecosystems naturally remove carbon from the   
   atmosphere and provide a range of environmental and economic benefits to   
   coastal communities, but many human interventions have caused extensive   
   degradation or destruction of natural coastal environments. Planting   
   more mangroves and seagrasses, maintaining them, and protecting the   
   overall ecosystem can restore their functioning and lead to additional   
   carbon removal from the atmosphere. Reinvigorating coastal ecosystems as   
   a technique for mitigating carbon emissions is not a new idea, but past   
   research has focused on carbon removal through organic carbon burial and   
   has not explored the potential for carbon removal through the formation   
   of inorganic carbon.   
      
   Another major result of human fossil fuel use beyond climate change is   
   ocean acidification from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolving in   
   the water and driving down the pH of the ocean, which can have severe,   
   negative impacts on many organisms like corals. Storing carbon dioxide   
   as inorganic carbon in the ocean could help mitigate this, because   
   the chemical processes that lead to carbon capture as inorganic carbon   
   involves alkalinizing ocean waters.   
      
   "The basic idea here is that you are shifting the acid-base balance   
   of the ocean to drive conversion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere   
   to inorganic carbon in the ocean," Reinhard said. "This means that the   
   process can help to partially offset the negative ecological consequences   
   of ocean acidification."  Modeling Carbon Capture To explore how effective   
   restoring coastal ecosystems could be for inorganic carbon capture, the   
   researchers built a numerical model to represent the chemistry and physics   
   of sedimentary systems -- the complex mixture of solid particles, living   
   organisms, and seawater that accumulates at the seafloor. A key advance   
   of the model is that it specifically tracks the potential benefits of   
   restored mangrove or seagrass ecosystems and their impacts on organic   
   and inorganic carbon cycling. It also calculates the effects of other   
   greenhouse gases, such as methane, that can sometimes be created in the   
   process of restoring mangrove and seagrass ecosystems.   
      
   "This model comes up with representations for the rates of carbon   
   transformation in the sediment based on how much mangrove is growing   
   above the sediment," said Noah Planavsky, senior author on the study   
   and professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Yale. "We found that   
   across an extremely large range of scenarios, restoration of blue carbon   
   ecosystems leads to durable carbon dioxide removal as dissolved inorganic   
   carbon."  The team hopes this research could provide an impetus to protect   
   current coastal ecosystems and economically incentivize restoration of   
   degraded ecosystems, potentially as a new form of carbon offset.   
      
   "Companies that are trying to offset their own emissions could   
   potentially purchase carbon removal through funding restoration of coastal   
   ecosystems," Reinhard said. "This could help rebuild these ecosystems   
   and all of the environmental benefits they provide, while leading to   
   durable carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere."   
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # Nature # Ecology_Research # Organic # Marine_Biology   
             o Earth_&_Climate   
                   # Global_Warming # Air_Quality # Forest # Geochemistry   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Carbon_dioxide o Carbon_dioxide_sink o Forest o Carbon_cycle   
             o Carbon_monoxide o Ocean_acidification o Greenhouse_gas   
             o Chloroplast   
      
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   Story Source: Materials provided by Georgia_Institute_of_Technology. Note:   
   Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
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   Journal Reference:   
      1. Mojtaba Fakhraee, Noah J. Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard. Ocean   
         alkalinity enhancement through restoration of blue carbon   
         ecosystems.   
      
         Nature Sustainability, 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01128-2   
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   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230530174257.htm   
      
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