Study to test if seaweed removes carbon dioxide

ROLE FOR 'BLUE CARBON' TO BATTLE CLIMATE CHANGE

- KATIE TIMMS

SCIENTISTS at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) are investigating the potential climate change mitigation benefits of farming seaweed alongside offshore wind arrays.

Seaweed is known to absorb large quantities of CO2 but the extent of its viability for carbon removal at industrial scale is yet to be determined.

For 'blue carbon' ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses or salt marshes, carbon is sequestered into mud or sediment in the immediate environment as the plants grow and die, their decomposing matter is absorbed into the ground below.

Seaweeds, by contrast, grow in rocky and exposed areas, making the carbo sequestration process much more difficult to track as the seaweed detritus is constantly released into the ocean, sequestering at sites on the seafloor and at unknown locations in the deep ocean.