Marine forests are extremely important to the health of whole marine ecology, such the forests are keeping carbon, ScienceNordic reported. These underwater forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere, keeping the atmosphere healthier.
Marine forests consist of kelps that grow on rocky shores and seagrass meadows, saltmarsh, and mangroves on stretches of the sandy seafloor. Any shallow waters are full of marine forests, and that’s so great! Being grown across the globe, such underwater flora is home to a wide variety of creatures including cod and fish.
But their importance lies in the two-pronged approach to help combat climate change, say the marine biologists. Research has shown that not only do they capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and lock it away as “Blue Carbon” in the ocean, they can also help us to adapt to some of the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise, coastal flooding and ocean acidification.
How marine forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere
The scientists have shown much more interest in so-called blue carbon over the past decade. The marine forests play a role in global carbon sequestration, that is the ability to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. The marine plants trap their own leaf fall and dead roots, which gradually accumulate on the seafloor beneath. They also trap and store carbon-containing particles from the water. This is what we refer to as a “carbon sink.”
In other words, the carbon sinks that form beneath these marine forests store just as much carbon as forests on land and accumulate at a much faster rate.
