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The use of marine protected areas (MPAs) for safeguarding natural carbon reserves in crucial sections of the seabed may serve as an additional approach to mitigate climate change, as indicated by a recent study spearheaded by the University of Victoria.

So far, the focus on natural carbon storage in oceanic environments, commonly known as “blue carbon,” has primarily targeted mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows. A recent study in FACETS, led by UVic postdoctoral researcher Graham Epstein, suggests that seabed sediments could offer a significantly greater potential for carbon storage and should not be overlooked for protection.

“While the sediments on the ocean bed might appear barren and insignificant, they actually harbor a unique, diverse, and often delicate array of species, playing a crucial role in marine ecosystems,” states Epstein, who is also part of Blue Carbon Canada, a UVic-led national research coalition assessing the current and future capabilities of natural carbon storage in Canada’s marine environments. “Seafloor sediments represent the concluding point in the marine carbon cycle, and since they blanket most of the ocean floor, they constitute one of the planet’s largest reservoirs of carbon, greatly surpassing mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows.”

The recent research estimates that the present MPA network in Canada encompasses merely 11 percent of the carbon located in the seabed down to depths of 2,500 metres, along with approximately 13 percent of the locations rich in carbon. Collaborating closely with Julia Baum—UVic’s special advisor on climate and an expert in marine ecology and conservation—Epstein together with partners from Oceans North and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, discovered that Canada’s currently proposed expansion of MPAs would afford protection to an additional nine percent of total seafloor carbon and six percent of carbon-rich areas.

Originally, MPAs were established to conserve and recover dwindling, depleted, rare, or delicate species and habitats, yet there is an increasing interest in their potential as a means of providing climate change mitigation benefits. The governing marine authority in Canada has expressed that climate change mitigation is a goal for the development of their MPA network; however, no MPA has yet been designated with the explicit intent of protecting carbon storage. Canada has currently allocated 15.5 percent of its marine territory as MPAs and has committed to internationally designated targets of 25 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.

“It is becoming more evident that industrial marine activities, such as bottom trawling, deep-sea mining, ocean energy development processes, petroleum extraction, and marine construction can disturb the carbon present in seabed sediments,” explains Susanna Fuller, vice president of conservation and projects at Oceans North. “Safeguarding key areas of seabed sediment is essential to ensure that this carbon remains buried, rather than being released back into the carbon cycle and exacerbating climate change.”

Epstein has also pinpointed and prioritized 274 key areas for forthcoming research and possible future spatial protection. These areas were assessed and ranked based on estimated carbon amounts, the potential susceptibility of that carbon, and the ecological and biological importance of the regions. Within British Columbia, the highest priority zones feature the Queen Charlotte Strait and northern Salish Sea, in addition to numerous fjords and inlets along the west coast of Vancouver Island and mainland BC. In the Atlantic, the priority sites include Placentia, Passamaquoddy, Mahone, Trinity Bay, alongside areas of the Laurentian Channel and Scotian Shelf.

This study received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), MITACS, Oceans North through an NSERC Alliance grant, and Blue Carbon Canada.

In 2024, UVic placed second in Canada and fifth worldwide for climate action (SDG 13). Apart from research projects and scholarship dedicated to climate action, UVic provides practical, climate-focused education, including an undergraduate degree in climate science, a graduate-level program for coastal climate solutions leaders, and a Transformative Climate Action Certificate course. Discover more.

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