[Seminar] The role of coastal ocean processes in the global carbon cycle: Land Ocean Carbon fluxes and Blue Carbon Burial

Fossil fuel combustion and changes in patterns of land usage are together adding approximately 10 GT C yr-1 to the atmosphere, of which about half remains in the atmosphere contributing to global warming with the remaining half being taken up by the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in approximately equal amounts. This major perturbation to the global carbon cycle is set against a much larger natural carbon cycle which our research focus is beginning to turn to understanding. Two key terms are the flux of carbon from terrestrial systems into inland waterways, estimated by the IPCC to be around 1-2 GT C yr-1 and the burial of ‘blue carbon’ in coastal systems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds. There are key partly because they are poorly quantified/ understood and modelled  and partly because they are both clearly changing in response to human pressure; dissolved organic carbon concentrations have increased by up to 50% in many northern European rivers and losses of coastal wetlands driven by urbanisation are accelerating. In light of this we have developed a major research programme on these processes, focussing on UK, SE Asian and Patagonian Carbon fluxes and seagrass meadow carbon burial. In this presentation we will describe the scope of our programme, highlighting key advances, significant unknowns and potential areas for future work and collaboration.