Tuesday October 17, 2023
The Fish Site —
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) BIO-Carbon programme will help to finance the projects, each of which encompasses a diverse array of UK universities and research institutes, as well as collaborating with a group of international partners and organisations.
Marine organisms play a critical role in storing carbon in the ocean that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. However, recent evidence suggests that climate models are not fully accounting for their impact. This could hinder predictions of the ocean’s role in future carbon storage at a critical time.
Adrian Martin, BIO-Carbon champion, said in a press release: “With countries striving for net-zero carbon and debate ongoing over whether we can use the ocean to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the need to understand how the ocean stores carbon has never been stronger and we know that marine life plays an important role. Partnering with the Future Marine Research Infrastructure (FMRI) project, these three exciting projects will use an ambitious combination of research vessels and marine robots. Together they will deliver fundamental insights into how ocean organisms will help it continue to store carbon as the climate changes.”