It is well known that forests and other terrestrial habitats act as carbon sinks by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, so-called “green carbon”. Nowadays, coastal ecosystems such as seagrass meadows (including Posidonia oceanica meadows) and salt marshes are also recognised as significant carbon sinks, potentially storing carbon for up to thousands of years. This is what we call “Blue Carbon”, and these habitats are disappearing faster than their terrestrial counterparts.
Life Blue Natura aims to quantify the sequestration of this green carbon in seagrass meadows and marsh habitats in Andalusia and analyse the development over the coming decades. This information will be used to mitigate climate change, create legal regulations and promote future studies of “Blue Carbon”.