Cultivating seaweed along the coast could offset the carbon produced by the aquaculture industry, as well as potentially fight climate change at local levels, according to a new study in “Current Biology,” published in August, 2019.
The researchers did not find seaweed cultivation to be a viable solution to offset all of global agriculture’s extensive carbon emissions. Still, their study examined global coastal habitats and found that farming even .001% of the available 48 million square kilometers could offset the carbon produced by the global aquaculture sector.
The researchers postulate that, in California, using just 3.8% of the coastline for seaweed farming could neutralize all of the state’s agricultural emissions. They hypothesize that in regions of Asia where seaweed is already being farmed, allotting part of that seaweed for carbon sequestration use could help those nations make strides towards meeting emission reduction goals.
Read the full article here.
Read the study here.
Written by Nicole Foulke