Could Protecting Sea Creatures Help Slow Climate Change?

The catastrophic effects from climate change has increased these past few years and experts are in search for innovative ways to reduce the overall risks. One powerful and low-cost strategy that experts see a potential in is to protect and recognize natural carbon sinks, processes and places that store carbon, as it keeps it out of the Earth's atmosphere.

Wetlands and forests can store and capture massive quantities of carbon. These ecosystems are included in climate change mitigation and adaptation that 28 countries have pledged to fulfill the Paris Climate Agreement. However, no policy has been created yet to protect carbon storage in the ocean, which is the largest carbon sink on Earth and is the central element of the Earth's climate cycle.

Marine biologists have their research focused on the marine mammal ecology, conservation and behavior. Now, they are also studying about how climate change is affecting marine life and how it could be a part of the solution.

Marine animals can carry carbon through numerous processes that include storing carbon in their bodies, excreting waste products that are carbon rich and can sink into the sea and protecting or fertilizing marine plants. Scientists are also beginning to recognize that seabirds, fish, marine mammals and other vertebrates have the potential to help lock carbon from the atmosphere.

Marine biologists are working with other researchers at UN Environment/GRID-Arendal, a United Nations Environment Program center located in Norway, to identify different mechanisms through which the natural biological processes of vertebrates can help mitigate climate change. So far, researchers have nine examples.

Carbon that is stored in living organisms is called the Biomass Carbon and it is found in all marine life. Massive animals like whales can store large quantities of carbon for years. Once they die, their body sink to the seafloor and it brings trapped carbon with them that stays for a lifetime. It is called Deadfall Carbon. On the seafloor, it can be buried in sediments and locked away from the Earth's atmosphere for millions of years.

Whales can also help to trap carbon by starting the production of small marine plants called the phytoplankton which use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make plant tissue just like plants that we see on land. The whales feed at them then release a nutrient-rich fecal plumes called buoyant while they rest at the surface, which can help fertilize phytoplankton in a way that scientists call the Whale Pump.

Marine life is valuable, and they play an important part in the ecosystem. Protecting them will ensure that the ocean can provide us with oxygen, food, natural beauty and carbon storage.