Coral 2mn
Blue carbon: a natural asset for protecting corals?
Restoring ecosystems that store ‘blue carbon’ would also help coral reefs.
As carbon emissions build up in the atmosphere, restoring blue carbon ecosystems could boost the health of coral reefs.
What is blue carbon?
Coastal marine ecosystems with vegetation (mangroves, seagrass beds, salt marshes, etc.) capture atmospheric carbon and store it in large quantities.
Restoring these ecosystems can therefore help to mitigate the build-up of carbon from human activities in the atmosphere.
What does that have to do with coral?
The presence of these ecosystems, which store blue carbon, alters the chemistry of the ocean. By capturing carbon, they raise the pH of the water, helping to combat ocean acidification, which threatens the formation of coral skeletons.
By improving the nutrient cycle, they promote the growth of the reef.
Finally, they dissipate wave energy, help to stabilise the coastline and keep sediments in place, which would otherwise disrupt coral growth.
Joint restoration efforts
With funding for restoration efforts becoming increasingly scarce in the United States, Motjaba Fakhraee, the University of Connecticut researcher behind this study published in the journal *Nature*, recommends focusing efforts on areas where it is possible to work on both blue carbon ecosystems and adjacent coral reefs.
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