Is ancient 'blue carbon' stabilized by its chemical composition and mineral environment?

Project Member(s): Skilbeck, C.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Institute of Nuclear Science & Engineering (AINSE Research Awards)

Start year: 2014

Summary: Carbon that is captured and stored by coasts and oceans - termed Blue Carbon (BC) - is a rapidly evolving area of research, but little is known about how BC evades microbial attack. Combining the fields of microbiology and geoscience, this project will assess two possible explanations for why BC remains stable: (1) BC is too structurally complex to be remineralised by microbes; and (2) BC is bound by minerals making it inaccessible to being remineralised by microbes. This project will deliver important information for managing coasts and oceans to maintain their ability to store BC over millennial time scales.

Publications:

Trevathan-Tackett, SM, Thomson, ACG, Ralph, PJ & Macreadie, PI 2018, 'Fresh carbon inputs to seagrass sediments induce variable microbial priming responses', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 621, pp. 663-669.
View/Download from: Publisher's site

Keywords: AC 1026647

FOR Codes: Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology), Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Coastal and Estuarine Environments, Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.