Role of felp forests in the oceanic carbon cycle threatened by ocean warming

What is it about?

The study shows that kelps forests absorb and release substantially larger amounts of carbon than previously thought. For instance, just the ONE kelp species we studied takes more carbon than the previous estimate for ALL the kelps species on Earth. Kelps can grow extremely rapidly absorb carbon to do so. When the kelps die, some of that carbon can be channelled to so-called carbon sinks, areas where that carbon is locked away from the atmosphere. Since kelpsgrow so fast and absorb so much carbon, even if a small proportion of that carbon reaches those sinks, then would make a sizeable contribution to the carbon that is sequestered by marine plants. However, we found that the kelp forests growing in warmer waters absorb and release less carbon, which suggests future ocean warming might diminish their capacity to donate carbon and contribute to climate change mitigation

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Why is it important?

Our study found that kelps absorb much more carbon than previously thought, which suggests that they play a bigger and underappreciated role in the oceanic carbon cycle, with potential to contribute to climate change mitigation.

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