Creating the foundation of blue carbon studies by developing the methodology for long-term, wide-range, and continuous measurement of CO2 and O2 fluxes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24656316
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Civil and environmental engineering
• Research Institution: Independent Administrative Institution Port and Airport Research Institute
• Principal Investigator: KUWAE Tomohiro 独立行政法人港湾空港技術研究所, 沿岸環境研究チーム, チームリーダー (40359229)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TOKORO Tatsuki 国立研究開発法人 港湾空港技術研究所, 沿岸環境研究領域 沿岸環境研究チーム, 研究官 (70543859)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 気候変動 / 二酸化炭素吸収 / 生態系サービス / 環境計測 / 渦相関法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

“Blue Carbon”, which is carbon captured by marine living organisms, has recently been highlighted as significant carbon stocks due to the high burial rates and long term sequestration. However, the direct contribution of Blue Carbon to the uptake of atmospheric CO2 through air-sea gas exchange is unclear. We performed in situ measurements of carbon flows. In particular, the air-sea CO2 flux was measured using three methods: the bulk formula method, the floating chamber method, and the eddy covariance method.
Our empirical results show that submerged autotrophic vegetation in shallow coastal waters can be functionally a sink for atmospheric CO2. The key factor determining whether or not coastal ecosystems directly decrease the concentration of atmospheric CO2may be net ecosystem production. This study thus identifies a new ecosystem function of coastal vegetated systems;they are direct sinks of atmospheric CO2.

Free Research Field

沿岸生元素循環，沿岸生態学，沿岸環境工学