How can seagrass help combat climate change?
How can seagrass help combat climate change? This question is the focus of the new research project ZOBLUC (“Zostera marina as a Blue Carbon Sink in the Baltic Sea”), which now starts under the leadership of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The project aims to investigate the role of seagrass meadows as carbon sinks and to develop recommendations for their protection. Funded with around €6 million as part of the Natural Climate Protection Action Programme (ANK) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUV) and the Ministry for Energy Conversion, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (MEKUN), the project will run until September 2030.
Seagrass meadows promote biodiversity, contribute to coastal protection by attenuating waves and improve water quality. They are also highly effective at storing carbon dioxide (CO₂), as the underwater plants sequester carbon in their leaves and roots as well as in the surrounding sediments.
The GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, in cooperation with the Kiel University (CAU) and the State Office for the Environment of Schleswig-Holstein (Landesamt für Umwelt, LfU), has launched a new project to study the role of seagrass meadows as natural carbon sinks and to develop strategies for their conservation and restoration.
Read more at: Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
