Our 'blue' forests have a vast role

A series of underwater vents off Ischia in the Bay of Naples may hold clues to how the world’s oceans will respond if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise unchecked.

At the vents volcanic gas bubbles from the seafloor consisting of nearly pure C02, the principle greenhouse gas which when dissolved in seawater turns to acid.

A team of divers, led by Plymouth University in the UK with support from UNEP, recently filmed the spot and the life forms near the vents.

Everything looks normal, until one peers at the footage with a more tutored eye. The seagrasses are perfect--but too perfect.

None of them have shelled organisms such as snails, mussels or sea urchins clinging to their fronds.

All organisms with calcareous shells or skeletons are missing -- even their dead remains have been dissolved.

Only in some distance from the vents, such organisms can be found, but the divers could squish or crush them between their fingers, their shells are so corroded and weak.

The world’s oceans and seas are now understood as the biggest sink of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.

Indeed experts now estimate that up to 40 per cent of the C02 entering the atmosphere is being cycled through the marine environment playing a crucial role in moderating climate change.

But experts are warning that the marine realm cannot continue to soak up man-made pollution forever without consequences--the living laboratory off Ischia being perhaps a case in point

Many marine living creatures from corals and crabs to plankton at the base of the food chain need seawater that is alkaki and free from other kinds of pollutants, such as hormones to build their skeletons.

The average pH of water at the ocean’s surface has now fallen from 8.16 to 8.05 since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution--small falls, but with potentially huge impacts if this continues.

And it is not just shell-building that may be affected by C02-led changes.

A recent meeting of the UNEP-Convention on Migratory Species was told of new studies indicating the oceans may be becoming ‘noisier’ with low frequency sounds travelling farther as a result of falling pH.

This may make it more difficult for marine mammals, such as whales, to communicate over man-made sounds such as ships engines and seismic guns fired during oil exploration.

Faced with this rapidly emerging science, the question is then what to do.

Firstly, governments must affirm their determination to ‘Seal the Deal’ in Copenhagen at the UN climate convention meeting in order to begin steering the world onto a low carbon course.

Secondly, we have to improve the health of our oceans. They have to be as fit and resilient as possible, so that they can cope with the climate change burden and to continue to provide us with food and the myriad of other economically-important services.

This means governments have to urgently address the multiple challenges weakening our seas, from land based pollution and discharges from ships up to overexploitation of the globe’s vital fisheries, fuelled in large part by perverse and wasteful subsidies totalling up to $35 billion a year.

Part off this virtuous circle and the first sign that the capacity of the marine environment to combat climate change is stretched thin was brought into sharp focus following the coral reef bleaching events of the late 1990s when sea surface temperatures climbed as high as 34 degrees C.

Studies in the Seychelles found that coral recovery rates varied between five to 70 per cent.

Importantly, the fastest recovery rates occurred on reefs in Marine Protected Areas where the levels of pollution, dredging and other kinds of human-induced disturbance were low.

Currently somewhere around 12 per cent of the land is held in protected areas, but less one per cent of the marine environment enjoys such status--so this needs to change, and to change fast too.

Meanwhile pollution levels, 80 per cent of which come from factories, cities and farms on the land, also need to be cut.

More than 60 countries have now developed national action plans under the voluntary UNEP initiative called the Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources.

It is a start, but to date the magnitude of the global response still fails to reflect the challenge as evidenced by the growing number of ‘dead zones’--de-oxygenated areas of sea linked with fertilizer and sewage-run alongside emissions from cars and shipping.

Experts estimate that the number and size of dead zones has been climbing every decade since the 1970s, reaching around 200 today.

Next month (May) governments meet for the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Indonesia.

Here ways of boosting the health of the oceans should be key in recognition of the importance of our seas in buying humanity much needed breathing space with respect to climate change.

Indeed perhaps it should now be pay back time. Firstly, investments in adaptation should not end at the shoreline--investing in the rehabilitation, rejuvenation and resilience of coastal ecosystems, from mangroves to coral reefs and wetlands, can generate significant returns in respect to climate-proofing economies.

These include protecting vulnerable communities against storms surges and sea level rise while also helping to soak up greenhouse gas emissions; filter pollution and improve the health of fisheries.

And perhaps, just over the horizon, there is an even bigger prize--a mechanism to make the oceans part of the carbon market options.

Consider the history of forests. The suggestion that developing countries should be paid for not cutting down trees was dismissed over ten years ago as flawed.

But in Copenhagen there is a good chance that part of the deal will include forest payments to tropical nations. Eventually other land-based ecosystems may also be considered from peat lands to soils.

The oceans’ play a vast role in countering climate change -- they are our 'blue' forests. Rewarding countries that sustainably manage them to boost their climate combating role and productivity would seem well worth exploring--Manado is an opportunity and the forum to float such ideas.

Time to combat change is, like the seawaters in the Bay of Naples, bubbling away fast.

We need all hands on deck to turn this climate ship around from investments in energy savings and low and zero carbon technologies to markets that promote healthy ecosystems--forests for sure and perhaps our oceans and our seas too.