Climate change mitigation capacity of Swedish coastal seascapes

Global climate change mitigation through the preservation of natural biological carbon sinks is of the highest importance to face the threats to our planet but poses ample challenges for society, governments and policy makers around the world.

It is thus crucial to conserve the ecosystems’ ability to slow down the prevailing increase of atmospheric CO2 and plan how our coasts are utilized in the best way. By failing to do so, large amounts of greenhouse gases will be released from disturbed biological carbon sinks.

There is currently a focus on the climate mitigation potential of natural blue carbon sinks, nevertheless there are major knowledge gaps of the functioning and vulnerability of these sinks and their link to climate compensation capacity.

The proposed project will evaluate climate change mitigation capacity of Swedish coastal seascapes by assessing the total net blue carbon sequestration capacity, greenhouse gas exchange and seascape connectivity (export and fate of carbon) coupled to distribution of blue forest habitats and contemporary land use.

Seascape-wide conceptual climate-carbon models on coastal blue carbon will be developed to identify areas for spatial conservation prioritization (e.g.

CO2 sequestration hotspots) and areas of concern (i.e. environmentally sensitive or damaged coastal blue forest habitats), which will benefit managers developing land use planning and policy-making that sustainably safeguard climate regulation services of Swedish seascapes.