Intrepid Foundation companion Blue Carbon Lab is working to mitigate local weather change by regenerating threatened coastal wetlands all through southeast Australia.
When it involves conservation, rainforests and reefs get loads of consideration. But there are various different biodiverse areas that play a vital function in serving to to make the planet a liveable place. Wetland environments are a type of missed ecosystems scientists are actually specializing in.
As part of the Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration program, Deakin University’s Blue Carbon Lab is harnessing modern analysis methods to be taught extra about how wetland ecosystems – like mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows – are mitigating the impacts of local weather change.
Introduced species and land clearing for farming and different makes use of is resulting in the widespread destruction of wetland habitats within the Port Phillip Bay space of Victoria, so the work of Blue Carbon Lab is nothing in need of important.
Superheroes of carbon sequestration
Planting carbon-sequestering timber could also be a well-liked approach to average carbon emissions, but there’s a extra environment friendly means to attract down carbon: restoring and defending coastal wetlands. Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems known as blue carbon.
“The power of ecosystems like seagrass meadows and salt marshes is that they store carbon in the ground over time. They’re not just storing carbon for the life of a tree (which might be 50 to 100 years); wetlands actually store carbon in the ground across timescales of thousands of years,” explains Dr Paul Carnell, marine scientist at Blue Carbon Lab.
While it’s not a zero-sum recreation (tree planting and forest preservation are nonetheless important), wetlands restoration presents bang to your buck if you wish to donate your time or cash to a conservation trigger with most affect.
“Blue carbon ecosystems put carbon back in the ground 20 to 50 times faster per hectare than a terrestrial forest does. So these ecosystems are highly efficient at locking carbon away and putting it back in the ground where it came from,” says Paul.
But how are the carbon storage capabilities of those ecosystems measured? Soil coring is a technique used to analyse the quantity of carbon that has gathered in an ecosystem over time. Blue Carbon Lab is now utilizing soil coring know-how to unravel the mysteries held inside the mud.
“People might be familiar with the concept of taking ice cores in the Antarctic to reconstruct historical timelines. You can actually do the same in coastal wetlands. When we take a core in the salt marshes, seagrass or mangroves, we can look at what has changed in that ecosystem over time,” Paul explains.
One ecosystem, many advantages
Apart from storing carbon, Victoria’s coastal wetlands additionally function a habitat for a lot of native animal species, together with the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot, certainly one of just a few migratory parrot species on this planet.
“Orange-bellied parrots are highly dependent on coastal salt marshes. In winter, they fly all the way up here from Tasmania, just to spend time in the salt marshes in and around Port Phillip Bay. It’s a critical habitat for them and potentially a part of the reason that they haven’t been doing so well is the historic decline of that habitat,” says Paul.
The space can also be of excessive significance to the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners. Before colonisation, native vegetation and animal species would have proliferated within the space. These days, rabbits, launched vegetation and weeds are upsetting the stability.
Discussions with Traditional Owners revealed that eradicating weeds and different invasive species at this important cultural website will assist to revive connections again to Country. “These non-native plants are just another reminder of the European colonisation of the area,” Paul says.
Calling all citizen scientists
While scientific understanding is essential to saving these ecosystems, you don’t want a PhD to contribute to the conservation and regeneration of coastal wetlands.
Paul explains that Blue Carbon Lab’s citizen science packages assist to foster neighborhood consciousness of the significance of various ecosystems. Importantly, citizen scientists (united by the hashtag #bluecarbonarmy) help the Blue Carbon Lab staff to finish discipline work they battle to suit into their busy schedules.
“The thing I really like about our citizen science programs is that we’re not just collecting data for data’s sake. A number of scientific publications came out recently using data from our program. This amazing army of people is actually helping to advance the science,” says Paul.
Intrepid workers just lately attended a citizen science workshop at Point Lillias, about an hour from Melbourne. After being welcomed by Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, the group helped researchers monitor vegetation and determine invasive weeds akin to artichoke thistle and Paterson’s curse, which characterize a risk to native plant species.
Paul provides that the info collected by this citizen science challenge will inform restoration efforts sooner or later. “Since European colonisation, we’ve lost close to half of our coastal marshes in Port Phillip Bay. But with the help of funding from The Intrepid Foundation, we’re able to do this great work on the ground to restore these lost ecosystems.”
Want to help the Blue Carbon Lab? You can, by way of The Intrepid Foundation. Find out extra right here.