NEWS RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

The salt marshes, mud flats and eel grass meadows of temperate river estuaries are more effective than young coastal forests at capturing and storing carbon dioxide and may sequester this greenhouse gas for centuries, if not millennia, according to researchers from the University of Victoria (UVic). The amount of carbon sequestered by the Cowichan estuary salt marshes on Vancouver Island is roughly double that of an actively growing 20-year-old Pacific Northwest forest of the same area, reports [a study](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.857586/full#B28) published in the journal *Frontiers in Marine Science*. The research was supported by UVic, Ocean Networks Canada, and the Cowichan Estuary Restoration and Conservation Association. So-called blue carbon – carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from the atmosphere by marine plants and algae – collects as organic debris in estuary sediments where low-oxygen conditions prevent their decomposition. “Oxygen is depleted very quickly from the surface of the sediment due to aerobic microbial processes. This prevents buried organic matter from being remineralized back into CO₂, preventing it from returning to the atmosphere,” said lead author Tristan Douglas, a UVic graduate student in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, who spent two years analyzing the physical and chemical properties of sediment cores collected from the Cowichan Estuary. That makes undisturbed estuaries a potent passive carbon storage system with the global potential to capture and store greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at the gigatonne scale. Intertidal ecosystems – especially those in the tropics – can be 20 to 60 times more effective than forests at capturing and storing carbon dioxide. However, compromised estuaries can and do release carbon on a similar scale, the authors warn. Plant species like salt marsh grasses and sedges, mangrove forests and seagrasses are particularly efficient natural carbon sinks. They capture and store up to 70 per cent of the organic carbon resident in marine systems, despite only occupying 0.2 per cent of the ocean surface. The report shows that the carbon sink capacity of the 466-hectare Cowichan-Koksilah Estuary has been compromised by industrial and agricultural activity since the area was settled by European colonists. Eel grass on about 129 hectares of the intertidal zone has been disturbed by log handling and storage, while about 100 hectares of salt marsh was drained for farming and cattle pasture. This has reduced its natural capacity to sequester carbon by about 30 per cent, equivalent to putting 53 typical gasoline-powered motor vehicles back on the road.

NEWS RELEASE Newly published research by scientists with the Solid Carbon project shows that carbon dioxide (CO₂) taken from the atmosphere and injected into the deep subseafloor off Vancouver Island may turn into solid rock in about 25 years. Solid Carbon, an international research team led by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a University of Victoria initiative, and funded by a PICS Theme Partnership grant from the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, hosted and led by UVic, is investigating how to permanently and safely sequester CO₂ as rock in the ocean floor. The project is part of the emerging field of negative emissions technologies—climate solutions that reduce the amount of carbon in the earth’s atmosphere.

NEWS RELEASE Injecting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into ocean basalt has almost no risk of triggering any seismic activity such as earthquakes or fault slip according to new research from [Solid Carbon](https://solidcarbon.ca/), a promising climate change mitigation project for reducing the amount of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Advanced computer modelling by scientists with the Solid Carbon team shows injecting CO₂ under the Cascadia Basin has less than 1 percent chance of causing fault slip. Solid Carbon, an international research team led by Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a University of Victoria (UVic) initiative, and funded by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, is investigating how to permanently and safely store CO₂ below the ocean floor. The goal is to capture CO₂ from the atmosphere and inject it into young (less than 15 million years old) porous basalt rock, such as that found in the Cascadia Basin off the west coast of Canada, where it would interact with minerals, transforming into carbonate rock.

Ocean Networks Canada’s deep sea observatory is the research monitoring site for a new type of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal technology; the first of its kind to be trialed in Canadian waters. The research experiment is a partnership between ONC and the US-based ocean health company, Running Tide, to advance scientific knowledge of marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) and provide foundational information on the potential to enhance natural ocean carbon removal processes for addressing the climate crisis. An observational platform outfitted with Running Tide’s Carbon Buoys and samples of kelp substrate was successfully installed yesterday by [Pelagic Research Service’s](https://pelagic-services.com/web2/) remotely operated vehicle (ROV) *Odysseus* at the Clayoquot Slope site on ONC’s NEPTUNE seafloor observatory, located off the west coast of Canada, during the [current #ONCAbyss expedition](https://www.oceannetworks.ca/expeditions/oncabyss-expedition-fall-2023/). The buoys are made from wood and mycelium.

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) takes responsibility for the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that its operations create by choosing to be carbon neutral, an interim solution to achieve net-zero emissions in a world still reliant on fossil fuels. ONC’s ocean observatory networks are contributing to a more resilient planet, providing ocean intelligence on the impacts of climate change, as well as providing a subsea laboratory to monitor and test the efficacy of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. The observatory networks use clean energy from BC Hydro to power thousands of sensors in the ocean and deliver data in real time. Maintaining these observatory infrastructures, however, currently requires heavy industry for which no carbon-free options yet exist. For example, installing scientific instruments on ONC’s cabled seafloor observatories requires the use of a fossil fuel-powered major research vessel from which ONC can deploy a remotely operated vehicle to do the work. ONC addresses these climate costs by securing a carbon neutral certification. This fall, ONC received a Carbonzero Certification for 2022–making this the third consecutive year of successful tracking, reporting and offsetting annual carbon emissions. [Carbonzero](https://www.carbonzero.ca/) provides third-party verified carbon offsets in Canada and internationally with their team of GHG accounting professionals. “Voluntary carbon offset programs like this are not a substitute for the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” acknowledges Kate Moran, CEO and president of Ocean Networks Canada, “But they are a step in the right direction, encouraging us to recognize and reduce our carbon footprint while committing to a sustainable future.” Carbon neutral is a calculation where total polluting emissions are equal to carbon offset credits. Purchase of credits fund projects that permanently reduce GHG emissions, create jobs, and support local communities. This calculation is based on the principle that an emission reduction made in your neighborhood has the same positive effect as one made on the other side of the world because GHG emissions are global, not local. # Supporting forests and people, simultaneously ONC purchased carbon offset credits for its 2022 certification that support the Great Bear Rainforest Carbon Project. This is the first carbon offset project in North America to be implemented on traditional territory with unextinguished Aboriginal rights and Title, states Carbonzero [on its website](https://www.carbonzero.ca/offset-projects/great-bear-forest-carbon-project). One carbon offset credit represents an emission reduction of one metric tonne of CO₂, or an equivalent amount of other GHGs. Offset credits are generated by calculating avoided deforestation or degradation impacts across the Great Bear Rainforest. Approved projects that produce carbon offset credits include sustainable logging, planting trees in areas where no forests existed (afforestation) and replanting forests where they have been absent for a long time (reforestation). Money generated through the sale of credits goes directly back into the communities who have been protecting their territories for generations.

**A leading panel of experts will discuss the carbon reduction potential, possible impacts, and advances in ocean-based carbon dioxide removal technologies, and the role of responsible R&D to ensure the safety of this emerging sector.** The best available science makes clear that to reach the climate goals set forth in the Paris Agreement will require both decarbonization and removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (CDR). Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal—commonly referred to as marine CDR (mCDR)—is a suite of methods that enhance the ocean’s natural processes to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and safely store it in the ocean. This panel event is being held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2024 Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, starting at 10AM on Friday, January 16, 2024. ONC plans to share a recording of this event online and on social media.

NEWS RELEASE Massive volcanic carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions contributing to an extreme global ocean deoxygenation event over 120 million years ago has modern day implications for understanding a climate warming “tipping point,” according to new research published in *Nature* this week, led by a scientist at Ocean Networks Canada, a University of Victoria initiative. The paper titled [*A climate threshold for ocean deoxygenation during the Early Cretaceous*](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07876-1) reconstructs historical Earth-system processes to establish a climate warming threshold that when crossed, leads to widespread and persistent ocean deoxygenation. Led by Kohen Bauer, director of science at ONC, the research team reconstructed environmental conditions using rock samples from the University of Milan archive. The sedimentary rocks studied date back between 115 and 130 million years and were originally deposited in the ancient oceans. By measuring the geochemical composition of the rocks, the team produced a unique high-resolution record of environmental change. “Our work shows that massive volcanic carbon emissions led to a rapid increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and the crossing of a climate-warming threshold, or tipping point, that resulted in widespread ocean deoxygenation. Following this, Earth’s climate system then remained in a warmed state for over two million years,” says Bauer, who began the work while at Hong Kong University’s Department of Earth Sciences and completed it at UVic.