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Amid apprehensions over deposition of sediments in Vembanad Lake and calls for increasing the water storage capacity of the waterbody, experts at the International Research and Training Centre for Below Sea Level Farming (IRTCBSF), Kuttanad, under the State government have warned that de-silting the waterbody by bottom dredging for flood management will disturb the blue carbon ecosystem in the region.
Coastal ecosystems, known as “blue carbon,” excel at capturing atmospheric carbon. Their lush vegetation not only absorbs the carbon dioxide but also channels it down to the soil, where it gets buried for centuries. It is one of several climate change mitigation measures considered globally. Researchers say that wetlands like Vembanad, a Ramsar site and the second-largest wetland system in India, are major blue carbon ecosystems.
