I recently spent a sunny morning aboard Falcon Spirit, a University of Plymouth research vessel. As the boat motored along the south Devon coast, I spoke to Joan Edwards, director of marine policy for The Wildlife Trusts, about some exciting new research that maps blue carbon habitats in UK seas.
It’s long been understood that ocean habitats play a key role in storing carbon from the atmosphere, but until now, nobody has known exactly how much ends up in kelp, seagrass meadows, salt marshes and sediment in the seabed. Quantifying this, Edwards says, is the first step to minimising any damage caused by human activities such as commercial trawling to the most carbon-rich ecosystems in the ocean.
