Oceans and the Carbon Cycle
Oceans and coastal ecosystems play an especially significant role in the carbon cycle. This happens as ocean plants and algae absorb carbon through photosynthesis and then release oxygen back into the atmosphere, the same as plants on land. Ocean organisms can be stored in the ocean floor or trapped in deep water for decades where less oxygen is available and the release of carbon is delayed, creating a carbon sink.
Blue carbon refers to carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere and permanently stored for more than 1000 years in marine ecosystems.
The Gulf of Maine is changing especially quickly, with temperatures rising faster than anywhere in the world!
This trend will have a big impact on Maine and its fishing and aquaculture in the future.
LEARN MORE ABOUT
The ocean carbon cycle from Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Photo Credit: Britney Honisch, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Our work at Wolfe’s Neck Center
Over the last several years, Wolfe’s Neck Center’s Organic Dairy Team has been working with scientists from Bigelow Laboratory and other partner institutions to study the impacts of adding certain seaweed compounds to a cow’s diet.
Over the next several years, we will assess the impacts of this new diet in key areas including methane emissions, manure, soil and cow health, as well as milk production and its components.
Research like this can have positive impacts on agricultural carbon emissions as well as the seaweed and aquaculture industries in Maine.
Seaweed farming is one way to diversify the marine harvest within Maine’s fishing industry by working with a network of partner aquaculturists and fisherfolk that aim to add new fisheries to their income.
Along the shore you might spot a type of seaweed, called rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum), which commonly grows on Maine’s rocky intertidal shores. WNC is a host to the citizen science monitoring project, Project ASCO, coordinated by the Schoodic Institute, that aims to track the abundance of rockweed across its range.
Rockweed is a keystone species providing food and habitat for other species living on our coasts and is harvested as both garden fertilizer, a packing material for lobsters, and for animal feed supplements.
This monitoring project contributes to sustainable harvesting practices by working with folks up and down Maine’s coastline and asking, “How much rockweed is there?”
While exploring our 600 acres of preserved coastal landscape, you may spot crabs with green shells. These are called European green crabs (Carcinus maenas) and are extremely invasive, destroying the marine environment and out-competing local species.
To keep our coasts protected, we work with local fishers to take any green crabs they catch, incorporating them into our compost as a nutrient and carbon-rich additives for our soils.
