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Description
BlueForests brings together a team of Portuguese and Norwegian scientists, SME specialized in seaweed aquaculture and ocean engineering solutions and a collaborative laboratory between academic and industrial communities to face climate change and environmental sustainability, to advance science and test technological innovations to rebuild Portuguese marine forests and to value their ecosystem services. New technologies to restore Portuguese marine forests, including oceanography-ecosystem modelling and GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis to reveal the best locations for seaforestation and offshore hotspots of organic matter deposition, will be used. Novel techniques of planting will be developed, tested and optimized and seaforestations will be monitored. The outwelling of organic matter from Portuguese marine forests to offshore hotspots of accumulation within the sediments will be quantified and characterized by a series of techniques, including eDNA. The ecosystem services of marine forests will be economically valuated as this is a key step to halt biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems in the EU. An dissemination effort will be done not only to the scientific community but also to the general public, stakeholders and managers, to inform public policies for sustainable management, contributing to the welfare of populationsIt will contribute for the reversal of the loss of marine forests, rebuilding a key marine life support system along the Portuguese coast that delivers fundamental global and regional ecosystem services, such as climate change mitigation, support of biodiversity, including fisheries resources, water purification, protection of the coastline and disease control. The impact of the project will be both regional and global not only taking in considerations the novel methodologies for seaforestation that may be applied elsewhere but also of its future consequences in terms of the enhancement of marine forest ecosystem services.
Summary of project results
Marine blueforests of kelps and seagrasses are among the most important life-support systems of the ocean.
They are powerhouses of benefits for human well-being through the provision of a variety of global and regional ecosystem services such as mitigating climate change through carbon sequestration and accumulation in sediments, supporting biodiversity, including nursery grounds for commercial species, purifying water, protecting the coastline and controlling diseases. In spite of their importance, blueforests are experiencing severe global decline due to intense use of coastal areas. Therefore, there is a growing urgency to implement the reforestation of blue forests to recover and expand the natural capital of the Portuguese coast.
BlueForests advanced science and tested technological innovations to rebuild Portuguese kelp and seagrass forests and to value their ecosystem services. Innovative modeling approaches involving the combination of life cycle models coupled with hydrodynamic models allowed to identify sites along the Portuguese coast that are suitable for kelp seaforestation. To optimize future seaforestation programs, new technologies were
tested and optimized based on laboratory seeded materials that were deployed and monitored in suitable sites revealed by modeling. A technical-economic study was performed to assist stakeholders to effectively assess and substantiate the financial requirements for successful restoration projects. Accoustic monitoring programs were developed and tested to assist environmental impact assessments of kelp and seagrass reforestation programs. A particularly novel approach to seagrass restoration was the characterization of the seagrass microbiome and its role in enhancing seed viability and promote seedling health and survival.
Manipulation of the microbiome may the key to the success of future restoration programs. Lagragian transport modeling was used to identified hotspots for blue carbon sequestration at offshore marine sediments. Selected hotspots were sampled and the organic carbon content, the carbon sequestration rate and the sources of carbon were analysed revealing the relative contributions of marine versus terrestrial sources. Finally, the ecosystem services of kelp and seagrass forests were identified and their value quantified.
BlueForests scientific and technological contributions are a landmark for future seaforestation programs of
kelp and seagrasses in Portugal and elsewhere.
Summary of bilateral results
BlueForests included the Norwegian partner Sintef, one of Europe’s largest independent research organisations, wich provided a dynamical, differential equations model for the life cycle (from spore to adult, reproductive sporophyte) of the main kelp species of the Portuguese coast, Laminaria ochroleuca. The model was forced by variables such as water temperature, light, and nutrients, which were supplied to the life cyclemodel by a coupled 3D biophysical ocean model framework (SINMOD) in collaboration with Colab +Atlantic.The modelling experience of the life cycle of kelps of Sintef was key to determine the best sites along the Portuguese coast to implement seaforestation actions of kelp forests. This was a major innovation in the BlueForests project to couple the kelp growth model with a spore release, transport and development model to identify regions where seaforestation actions are potentially more successful. Within this task Sintef work closely with IPL and CIIMAR that provided biological data on the target species.The modeling knowledge of Sintef was also fundamental to determine the potential offshore burial areas for organic carbon derived from coastal blueforests of kelps and seagrasses. In collaboration mostly with IPL and CCMAR, Sintef developed a modeling system that included two numerical models, concretely SINMOD, which drives the physics to MOHIDLagrangian transport model. Eulerian current fields obtained from SINMOD determine the transport path of the organic carbon, computed by the MOHID lagrangian model.Areas with greater accumulation of organic matter were determined by considering the organic matter as lagrangian particles, forced by the current field.The bilateral cooperation between SINTEF and Portuguese partners will continue in the short term to finish the submission of two manuscripts for publication and in the future for the development of new research projects.