The Protective Role of Coastal Marshes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Saltmarshes lie between many human communities and the coast and have been presumed to protect these communities from coastal hazards by providing important ecosystem services. However, previous chara[...]

Marine Ecosystem Services

Marine ecosystems represent some of the most heavily exploited ecosystems throughout the world. For example, coastal zones make up just 4% of the earth’s total land area and 11% of the world’s oce[...]

2020 Was One of Three Warmest Years on Record

The year 2020 was one of the three warmest on record, and rivalled 2016 for the top spot, according to a consolidation of five leading international datasets by the World Meteorological Organization ([...]

Blue Carbon Conservation in West Africa: A first assessment of feasibility

The loss of blue carbon ecosystems results in significant levels of carbon emissions and decreased supply of other ecosystem services. West Africa contains approximately 14% of the world’s mangrove [...]

Understanding Blue Carbon

Blue carbon refers to carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere and stored in the ocean. “Blue” refers to the watery nature of this storage. The vast majority of blue carbon is carbon di[...]

The Ocean Carbon Cycle

Without the contribution of oceans and coastal ecosystems to global biological carbon sequestration, today’s CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would be much larger than it is. But the uptake capac[...]

Protecting Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity

Ecosystem services are the engine of the environment. They are essential to life. Land, water, air, climate and genetic resources must be used responsibly if they are to also benefit future generation[...]

Ocean Acidification and Other Ocean Changes

The world’s oceans have absorbed about 93% of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas warming since the mid-20th century, making them warmer and altering global and regional climate feedbacks. Ocea[...]