| Abstract Detail
Environmental Climate Change : The role of marine and aquatic photosynthetic organisms in the global carbon cycle Thorhaug, Anitra [1]. Carbon Sequestration Potential in Restoration of Long-lived Marine Plants. The carbon sequestered in the sea can be short term in plankton (days), medium term in some macroalgae ( months), or long-term in higher marine plants (seagrass, mangroves, marshes) and long-lived macroalgae which very actively sequester carbon for example the Siphonales Halimeda opuntia living and expanding many years. Calculations by Hansen et al. (2008) opine the tipping point of carbon dioxide atmospherically to be 350 ppm, whereas they suggest restoration of forests could result in 60 ppm increased change in the atmospheric carbon. This is stated as highly helpful in the carbon dioxide cycle. Neither Hansen et al. nor oceanographers studying the oceanic carbon dioxide cycle in the sea calculate the restoration of long-lived macroplants in the sea as a partial solution to the carbon sequestration problem. Under consideration as one of the solutions sets is fertilization of plankton with metals or N or P, which has considerable side-effects on adjacent on  “downstream” ecosystems. The techniques to be discussed in this presentation are far newer than reforestation, but nevertheless consideration to their efficacy in helping change the amount of sequestered carbon needs to be accorded them in the oceanic calculations. Long-lived-marine plants such as kelp ( North,1964,1979,1981), marshes (Seneca, Woodhouse and Broome, 1972, 1988), mangroves (Teas, 2002), seagrasses ( Thorhaug, 1975, 1985, 2001), Halimeda opuntia (Thorhaug, 2002), Penicillus capitatus and Udotea flabellum (Thorhaug, 1965 and Thorhaug & Wanless, 2002) can be restored. Techniques for doing these restorations, success in restoration and calculations for the potential effects on carbon sequestration will be discussed in the presentation.
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1 - Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 1359 SW 22 TER, Miami, Florida, 33145, USA
Keywords:
Carbon dioxide
carbon sequestration
marine macroalgae
seagrasses
seagrass restoration
carbon cycle.
Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY10
Location: Cottonwood B/Snowbird Center
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM
Number: SY105005
Abstract ID:993 |
