Jersey Blue Carbon

 

The potential of marine habitats, including saltmarsh, seagrass, kelp and sediment, to sequester and store carbon is widely known to science. Furthermore, the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change by leaving the seafloor undisturbed is huge, although calculating just how much carbon is stored in the ocean is highly challenging. 

After the Crown gifted the seabed to Jersey and the results of Brexit, Jersey now has a once in a generation opportunity to manage its marine environment effectively, through a marine spatial plan which seeks to develop a ‘network of marine protected areas’. Additionally, Jersey’s carbon neutral roadmap includes a specific blue carbon, biodiversity and sequestration policy (EN5). These two mechanisms are key in further developing blue carbon research and therefore securing the use of nature-based solutions to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. Blue carbon research is currently being undertaken through a partnership with the Government of Jersey, universities of Plymouth and Exeter and Blue Marine as well as a local PhD. An initial desk-based study has been published and further work is being undertaken to support this. 

A local PhD student is undertaking the complex task of assessing Jersey’s blue carbon ecosystems. Anna will be collecting sediment core samples across the extent of Jersey’s territorial waters. Samples will be collected, processed and sent off to specialists in the UK for eDNA and Carbon analysis. This work will play a key role in further understanding Jerseys blue carbon ecosystems, enabling better management of the local marine resource to subsequently tackle the climate crisis.