Long- term stores of carbon in the top 10 cm of sediments within the protected areas are estimated to contain 76 Mt of OC, accounting for 50% of the total OC in the region, and 510 Mt of IC, accounting for 36% of the total IC across the region. [...] Such habitats present in the area are identified and reviewed with regard to their potential to fix and store (i.e., sequester) carbon, focusing on the ecology of the key carbon-fixing and habitat-forming species, the dynamics of physical habitats, and quantitative estimates of carbon in short- and long-term stores and of rates of carbon fluxes. [...] Assessment of carbon sequestration and storage follows the sequence of combining estimates of area with habitat-specific rates of production, loss, import and export of carbon, and thence area-specific rates of sequestration, to give area-integrated estimates of the total amount of carbon locked away by biological activity in the coastal zone. [...] The approach follows that of successful and widely used audits of carbon storage and sequestration processes, primarily the review of Scotland’s blue carbon stores (Burrows et al., 2014), and more recently the reports of the assessment of carbon capture and storage in the English North Sea Region (Burrows et al., 2021), the English Channel and Western Approaches Region (Burrows et al., 2024a) and. [...] Percentage areas are the percentage of each habitat type within the region’s protected areas, and values in the bottom row are the percentages of the total area of the Region covered by each type of protected area.
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Table of Contents
- Assessment of Marine Carbon Storage and Sequestration Potential in Scotland (Including Within Marine Protected Areas): Executive Summary for Policymakers 4
- Main Findings 4
- 1 Introduction to the UK Blue Carbon Assessment 11
- 1.1 Background and rationale 11
- 1.2 Project objectives 12
- 1.3 GIS methods 14
- 1.3.1 Data sources for habitats and protected areas 14
- 1.3.2 Carbon stores in protected areas 14
- 1.3.3 Carbon accumulation from habitat-specific assimilation rates in protected areas 14
- 2 Blue Carbon Ecosystems of Scotland 16
- 2.1 Environmental setting of Scotland 16
- 2.2 Habitat extent and distribution 16
- 2.3 Intertidal and subtidal macroalgae 17
- 2.3.1 Intertidal species 17
- Background and UK context 17
- Scotland 18
- 2.3.2 Kelp 19
- Background and UK context 19
- Scotland 19
- 2.3.3 Maerl 23
- Background and UK context 23
- Scotland 24
- 2.3.4 Fate of macroalgal detritus 25
- 2.4 Saltmarsh 26
- Background and UK context 26
- Scotland 28
- Carbon storage 30
- 2.5 Seagrass beds 31
- Background and UK context 31
- Scotland 32
- Carbon storage 34
- 2.6 Biogenic reefs 35
- 2.6.1 Blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) beds 35
- Background and UK context 35
- Scotland 36
- 2.6.2 Horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus) beds 36
- Background and UK context 36
- Scotland 36
- 2.6.3 Native oyster (Ostrea edulis) reefs 37
- Background and UK context 37
- Scotland 37
- 2.6.4 Cold-water coral (Desmophyllum pertusum) reefs 37
- Background and UK context 37
- Scotland 38
- 2.6.5 Sabellaria reefs 39
- Background and UK context 39
- Scotland 39
- 2.7 Sediments 39
- 2.7.1 Background and UK context 39
- 2.7.2 Scotland 39
- 2.7.3 Carbon stores in seabed sediments 41
- 2.7.4 Rates of carbon accumulation in sediments 43
- 3 Carbon Stores and Accumulation Rates across Scotland and its Protected Areas 48
- 3.1 Carbon in short- and long-term stores across Scotland 48
- 3.2 Protected areas 48
- 3.2.1 Habitat extents within protected areas 56
- 3.2.2 Visualising patterns of carbon stores and accumulation rates across protected areas 56
- 3.2.3 Organic carbon stores and accumulation rates across Scotland’s protected areas 56
- 3.2.4 Summary of marine organic carbon stores across the Scotland’s protected areas 57
- 3.3 Ecosystem-scale carbon budget 62
- 3.3.1 Organic carbon (OC) 63
- 3.3.2 Inorganic carbon (IC) 64
- 3.4 Updating Scotland’s 2014 blue carbon budget 64
- 3.5 Updating Scotland’s 2017 estimates of blue carbon in protected areas 67
- 4 Case Study: Loch Craignish and the Cromarty Firth 69
- 4.1 Introduction 69
- 4.1.1 Current knowledge of seagrass at both sites 70
- 4.2 Historical evidence of seagrass decline in Scotland 71
- 4.3 Managing and restoring seagrass habitats in both sea lochs 72
- 4.4 Lessons learned from seagrass restoration projects 73
- 5 References 74
- 6 Glossary 85
- Annex 1. Sources for Habitat Data 87
