The research mission "Marine carbon sinks in decarbonization paths (CDRmare)" of the German Marine Research Alliance (Deutsche Allianz für Meeresforschung, DAM) aims to further research the oceans as carbon stores. A total of around 200 researchers in six joint projects are investigating how the climate-regulating braking effect of the ocean can be increased in the future. sea4soCiety is one of the six projects funded since August 2021.
Coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows or algae forests store huge amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. All carbon stored in coastal ecosystems is called blue carbon. sea4soCiety wants to investigate how the potential of carbon storage in coastal areas can be increased in order to make a decisive contribution to slowing down climate change. Led by the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and with the participation of the Ludwig-Franzius-Institute, the research network will measure the storage capacity for blue carbon in four different types of coastal ecosystems - seagrass meadows, mangroves, algal forests and salt marshes - on the German North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts , in the Caribbean and on Indonesian coasts.
The scientists at the Ludwig-Franzius-Institute focus on investigating the stability of these ecosystems under currents and waves. The focus here is primarily on brown algae and tropical seaweed, which are being investigated both in the context of field campaigns in Germany and in the tropics and in laboratory tests under controlled boundary conditions. The first field campaign in brown algae forests near Helgoland with the participation of the University of Bremen and the University of Kiel with their research ship is planned for summer 2022.
To the press release of Leibniz University Hannover
