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Concept
Blue carbon
Summary
Blue carbon is a term used in the climate change mitigation context that refers to "biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management." Most commonly, it refers to the role that tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrasses can play in carbon sequestration. Such ecosystems can contribute to climate change mitigation and also to ecosystem-based adaptation. When blue carbon ecosystems are degraded or lost they release carbon back to the atmosphere.
Blue carbon management methods can be grouped into ocean-based biological carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods. They are a type of biologic carbon sequestration.
There is increasing interest in developing blue carbon potential. Research is ongoing. In some cases it has been found that these types of ecosystems remove far more carbon per area than terrestrial forests. However, the long-term effectiveness of blue carbon as a carbon dioxide removal solution remains contested. The term deep blue carbon is also in use and includes efforts to store carbon in the deep ocean waters.
Blue carbon is defined by the IPCC as: "Biologically driven carbon fluxes and storage in marine systems that are amenable to management."
Another definition states: "Blue carbon refers to organic carbon that is captured and stored by the oceans and coastal ecosystems, particularly by vegetated coastal ecosystems: seagrass meadows, tidal marshes, and mangrove forests."
Coastal blue carbon focuses on "rooted vegetation in the coastal zone, such as tidal marshes, mangroves and seagrasses". Seagrass, salt marshes and mangroves are sometimes referred to as "blue forests" in contrast to land-based "green forests".
Deep blue carbon is located in the high seas beyond national jurisdictions. It includes carbon contained in "continental shelf waters, deep-sea waters and the sea floor beneath them" and makes up 90% of all ocean carbon. Deep blue carbon is generally seen as "less amenable to management" and challenging due to lack of data "relating to the permanence of their carbon stores".
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Tidal marsh
A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes experience many overlapping persistent cycles, including diurnal and semi-diurnal tides, day-night temperature fluctuations, spring-neap tides, seasonal vegetation growth and decay, upland runoff, decadal climate variations, and centennial to millennial trends in sea level and climate.
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Mangrove restoration is the regeneration of mangrove forest ecosystems in areas where they have previously existed. The practice of mangrove restoration is grounded in the discipline of restoration ecology, which aims to “[assist] the recovery of resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed”. Since environmental impacts are an ongoing threat, to successfully restore an ecosystem implies not merely to recreate its former condition, but to strengthen its capacity to adapt to change over time.
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Ocean fertilization or ocean nourishment is a type of technology for carbon dioxide removal from the ocean based on the purposeful introduction of plant nutrients to the upper ocean to increase marine food production and to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Ocean nutrient fertilization, for example iron fertilization, could stimulate photosynthesis in phytoplankton. The phytoplankton would convert the ocean's dissolved carbon dioxide into carbohydrate, some of which would sink into the deeper ocean before oxidizing.
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