Understanding the interaction of seagrass, kelp forest and maerl habitat mosaics within the coastal seascape for quantification of Blue Carbon sequest

The value of the marine environment as a key ally in the journey to mitigate climate change has been widely recognised in the scientific literature (Bindoff et al. 2019), and more recently, there is a push in UK policy to protect this value through conservation mechanisms (Benyon et al. 2020).

Recent research has also shown that protecting the blue carbon value of marine systems cannot rely only on the conservation of unique and high carbon coastal habitats such as seagrass beds, but must include carbon flows between such habitats, across seascapes, and to the seafloor (Queiros et al 2019, 2023).

In the NW of Scotland, Orkney Island present a unique opportunity to study such carbon flows, harbouring pristine and extensive high carbon habitats such as seagrass, kelp beds and maerl, (Orkney Blue carbon Audit: Porter et al., 2020) which in turn support eh regions unique biodiversity (e.g. in Sanday, one of Orkney's Natura 2000 sites).

The Blue Carbon audits has been used to model and ground truth the distribution of habitats and carbon stores in Orkney, which in turn is informing regional nature enhancement activities: the roadplan the Scottish Government wants to implement to deliver positive outcomes for biodiversity (Kent et al. 2021).

From drone footage and diver in situ observations seagrass and kelp forest habitat types often exist as mosaics, and the same for seagrass and maerl.

However, data gaps still exist regarding the quantification of carbon sequestration by habitats and in underlying sediments (Orkney Blue carbon Audit: Porter et al., 2020), and there is no current understanding of carbon flows across the Orkney Seascape.

A better understanding of these flows across Orcadian carbon rich habitats would thus deliver high impact for local nature enhancement policy development, the ability to better protect Orcadian blue carbon and its associated biodiversity of these habitats.