Blue Carbon production, export and sequestration in emerging polar ecosystems (SeaQuester)

高纬度海域的快速气候变化正在推动沿海地区和公海出现新的生态系统。根据工作计划(地平线-CL6-2023-气候-01-3)，海洋探索者将进行实地调查、过程研究和模型分析，以提高我们对这些新兴极地生态系统的原因和后果、它们对蓝色碳固存的潜力、它们对海洋生物多样性的影响以及它们在全球生态-生物-地球化学气候系统中的作用的理解。Sea-Quester将对蓝色碳储量及其动态进行严格分析，为适合目的的蓝色碳核算奠定基础，其资产负债表不仅包括碳固存，还包括其他受影响的海洋生态系统服务，如渔业生产。SEA-QUSTER考虑了沿海、远洋和海底新型海洋生态系统中所有形式的蓝碳，无论是活的还是死的，在水柱和沉积物中，并使用机械方法来减少模型预测中的不确定性。SEA-QUESTER的一项关键成果将是开发一种彻底的方法来量化捕捞海洋生物量与其对碳固存的净贡献之间的权衡：生物量固存放大系数。SEA-QUESTER将确保有效利用项目成果，对蓝色碳潜力进行国际科学评估，并由政策制定者(具体针对国家确定的贡献估算)，确保与各国和欧洲政府机构、欧洲公民和非政府组织进行对话、沟通和传播，并为优化监测新兴极地环境中的生物多样性和生态系统服务提供建议。

The rapid pace of climate change in high latitude seas is promoting the emergence of novel ecosystems in coastal regions as well as in the open ocean. SEA-Quester, in accordance with the work program (HORIZON-CL6-2023-CLIMATE-01-3), will conduct field surveys, process studies and model analyses to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of these emerging polar ecosystems; their potential for blue carbon sequestration, their implications for marine biodiversity, and their role in the global eco-bio-geo-chemical climate system. SEA-Quester will do so with a rigorous analysis of blue carbon stocks and their dynamics, laying the foundations for a fit-for-purpose blue carbon accounting with balance sheets for not just carbon sequestration, but other impacted marine ecosystem services such as fisheries production. SEA-Quester considers all forms of blue carbon in coastal, pelagic, and benthic novel marine ecosystems, living and dead, in the water column and in the sediments, and uses a mechanistic approach to reduce uncertainties in model predictions. A key outcome of SEA-Quester will be to develop a thorough means of quantifying the trade-off between harvesting marine biomass and its net contribution to carbon sequestration: the Biomass-Sequestration amplification factor. SEA-Quester will ensure effective exploitation of the project results in international scientific assessments of Blue Carbon potential and by policy-makers (specifically targeting Nationally Determined Contribution estimates), to ensure dialogue, communication and dissemination to National and European governmental bodies, European citizens and NGO’s, and to provide recommendations for optimizing the monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services in emerging polar environments.