NEWSWEEKDec 12, 2018 | By Hannah Osborne The Great Barrier Reef has a meadow of deep-water seagrass that acts as a huge blue carbon sink, scientists have discovered. The seagrass, which covers an area twice the size of New Jersey, stores almost 28 million tonnes of organic carbon—and could be helping to ward off climateRead more
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A Deakin study quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions from farm dams for the first time has shown they are a significant contributor to manmade climate change, but that emissions could be cut in half with targeted changes to farming practices. The study, published today in the journal Global Change Biology, sampled agricultural dams from regionalRead more
The Blue Carbon Lab is delighted to announce the successful funding of its project “Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration” by the Biodiversity Response Planning (BRP) of the Department of Environment, Land and Planing of Victoria (DELWP). The Wetland Restoration project aims to rehabilitate more than 100 ha of our coastal zones, while developing and testing keyRead more
A survey of international environmental experts suggests that attitudes to the decommissioning of offshore infrastructure, such as oil platforms, have shifted. Almost 95% of the experts, drawn from 10 nations across academia, government and industry, believe that a more flexible, case-by-case, approach to equipment removal would be better for the environment. Obsolete offshore infrastructure, includingRead more
Victoria’s inland wetlands lock away the annual emissions of 185,000 people, or roughly the population of Geelong, according to the state’s first ever tally of the valuable environmental resources. The tally, which came to three million tons of CO2 each year, was gathered by researchers from the Deakin School of Life and Environmental Sciences’ BlueRead more
Mangrove forests are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems in the world and valuable sinks for carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. Now a global map of soil carbon in mangrove forests at 30 m spatial resolution could support new ecosystem services policy tools for rewarding the preservation of major environmental assets. “We felt that working atRead more
Australia’s offshore oil and gas structures are starting to come to the end of their lifespans — and while the default is currently to completely remove them from the ocean, some experts believe they should remain where they are. BCL scientist Peter Macreadie highlights “many of these structures become reefs and important habitats for marineRead more
