IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v6y2023i9d10.1038_s41893-023-01128-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ocean alkalinity enhancement through restoration of blue carbon ecosystems

Author

Listed:
  • Mojtaba Fakhraee

    (Yale University
    Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture)

  • Noah J. Planavsky

    (Yale University
    Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture)

  • Christopher T. Reinhard

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Abstract

Blue carbon ecosystems provide a wide range of ecosystem services, are critical for maintaining marine biodiversity and may potentially serve as sites of economically viable carbon dioxide removal through enhanced organic carbon storage. Here we use biogeochemical simulations to show that restoration of these marine ecosystems can also lead to permanent carbon dioxide removal by driving ocean alkalinity enhancement and atmosphere-to-ocean CO2 fluxes. Most notably, our findings suggest that restoring mangroves, which are common in tropical shallow marine settings, will lead to notable local ocean alkalinity enhancement across a wide range of scenarios. Enhanced alkalinity production is linked to increased rates of anaerobic respiration and to increased dissolution of calcium carbonate within sediments. This work provides further motivation to pursue feasible blue carbon restoration projects and a basis for incorporating inorganic carbon removal in regulatory and economic incentivization of blue carbon ecosystem restoration.

Suggested Citation

  • Mojtaba Fakhraee & Noah J. Planavsky & Christopher T. Reinhard, 2023. "Ocean alkalinity enhancement through restoration of blue carbon ecosystems," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(9), pages 1087-1094, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01128-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01128-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01128-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-023-01128-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jie Su & Daniel A. Friess & Alexandros Gasparatos, 2021. "A meta-analysis of the ecological and economic outcomes of mangrove restoration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Marwa E. Salem & D. Evan Mercer, 2012. "The Economic Value of Mangroves: A Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-25, March.
    3. V. Saderne & N. R. Geraldi & P. I. Macreadie & D. T. Maher & J. J. Middelburg & O. Serrano & H. Almahasheer & A. Arias-Ortiz & M. Cusack & B. D. Eyre & J. W. Fourqurean & H. Kennedy & D. Krause-Jensen, 2019. "Role of carbonate burial in Blue Carbon budgets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Joeri Rogelj & Alexander Popp & Katherine V. Calvin & Gunnar Luderer & Johannes Emmerling & David Gernaat & Shinichiro Fujimori & Jessica Strefler & Tomoko Hasegawa & Giacomo Marangoni & Volker Krey &, 2018. "Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 °C," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(4), pages 325-332, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nibedita Mukherjee & Jean Huge & Farid Dahdouh-Guebas & Nico Koedam, 2014. "Ecosystem service valuations of mangrove ecosystems to inform decision making and future valuation exercises," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/217963, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Kate Dooley & Ellycia Harrould‐Kolieb & Anita Talberg, 2021. "Carbon‐dioxide Removal and Biodiversity: A Threat Identification Framework," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(S1), pages 34-44, April.
    3. Elke Stehfest & Willem-Jan Zeist & Hugo Valin & Petr Havlik & Alexander Popp & Page Kyle & Andrzej Tabeau & Daniel Mason-D’Croz & Tomoko Hasegawa & Benjamin L. Bodirsky & Katherine Calvin & Jonathan C, 2019. "Key determinants of global land-use projections," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Chepeliev, Maksym & Diachuk, Oleksandr & Podolets, Roman & Trypolska, Galyna, 2021. "The role of bioenergy in Ukraine's climate mitigation policy by 2050," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Ángel Galán-Martín & Daniel Vázquez & Selene Cobo & Niall Dowell & José Antonio Caballero & Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez, 2021. "Delaying carbon dioxide removal in the European Union puts climate targets at risk," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Yamamoto, Yuki, 2023. "Living under ecosystem degradation: Evidence from the mangrove–fishery linkage in Indonesia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    7. Müller-Hansen, Finn & Lee, Yuan Ting & Callaghan, Max & Jankin, Slava & Minx, Jan C., 2022. "The German coal debate on Twitter: Reactions to a corporate policy process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    8. Bergholt, Drago & Røisland, Øistein & Sveen, Tommy & Torvik, Ragnar, 2023. "Monetary policy when export revenues drop," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    9. Yang Ou & Christopher Roney & Jameel Alsalam & Katherine Calvin & Jared Creason & Jae Edmonds & Allen A. Fawcett & Page Kyle & Kanishka Narayan & Patrick O’Rourke & Pralit Patel & Shaun Ragnauth & Ste, 2021. "Deep mitigation of CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gases toward 1.5 °C and 2 °C futures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Dan Tong & David J. Farnham & Lei Duan & Qiang Zhang & Nathan S. Lewis & Ken Caldeira & Steven J. Davis, 2021. "Geophysical constraints on the reliability of solar and wind power worldwide," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    11. Panagiotis Fragkos, 2022. "Decarbonizing the International Shipping and Aviation Sectors," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-25, December.
    12. Dan Welsby & Baltazar Solano Rodriguez & Pye Steve & Adrien Vogt-Schilb, 2022. "High and Dry: Stranded Natural Gas Reserves and Fiscal Revenues in Latin America and the Caribbean," Working Papers halshs-03410049, HAL.
    13. Kreuzer, Christian & Priberny, Christopher, 2022. "To green or not to green: The influence of board characteristics on carbon emissions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    14. Liu, Haifeng & Ampah, Jeffrey Dankwa & Afrane, Sandylove & Adun, Humphrey & Jin, Chao & Yao, Mingfa, 2023. "Deployment of hydrogen in hard-to-abate transport sectors under limited carbon dioxide removal (CDR): Implications on global energy-land-water system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    15. Galán-Martín, Ángel & Contreras, María del Mar & Romero, Inmaculada & Ruiz, Encarnación & Bueno-Rodríguez, Salvador & Eliche-Quesada, Dolores & Castro-Galiano, Eulogio, 2022. "The potential role of olive groves to deliver carbon dioxide removal in a carbon-neutral Europe: Opportunities and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    16. Clare Hanmer & Charlie Wilson & Oreane Y. Edelenbosch & Detlef P. van Vuuren, 2022. "Translating Global Integrated Assessment Model Output into Lifestyle Change Pathways at the Country and Household Level," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-31, February.
    17. Siegrist, Armin & Bowman, Gillianne & Burg, Vanessa, 2022. "Energy generation potentials from agricultural residues: The influence of techno-spatial restrictions on biomethane, electricity, and heat production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    18. Binh Bui & Charl de Villiers, 2021. "Recovery from Covid‐19 towards a low‐carbon economy: a role for accounting technologies in designing, implementing and assessing stimulus packages," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4789-4831, September.
    19. Aurelia Rybak & Aleksandra Rybak & Jarosław Joostberens & Spas D. Kolev, 2022. "Cluster Analysis of the EU-27 Countries in Light of the Guiding Principles of the European Green Deal, with Particular Emphasis on Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.
    20. Michael Getzner & Muhammad Shariful Islam, 2020. "Ecosystem Services of Mangrove Forests: Results of a Meta-Analysis of Economic Values," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-13, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01128-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.