Assessing Carbon Sink Capacity Of Marine Bivalves In Hebei Province

In order to alleviate global warming and reduce CO2emissions, developing low-carboneconomy has become the consensus of all countries in the world. The carbon sink bybiological process, which with feasible technology and affordable cost, is important todeveloping countries. In this context, Professor Qi-Sheng Tang, a member of the ChineseAcademy of Engineering proposed the concept of carbon sink fishery and advocated thedevelopment of carbon sink fishery.The oceanic carbon cycle is the most critical step of the global carbon cycle. Fisheriescarbon sink refers to promote aquatic organisms which absorb the CO2in water by fisheryproduction activities and remove the carbon out of water through the harvest. It is also seen asa removable carbon sink.The terrestrial ecosystem plays a significant role in carbon absorption and storage, butthe effect of forest and vegetation in terrestrial ecosystem on the carbon cycle is short-term,since the carbon will release to the atmosphere by decomposition in a relative short time. Incontrast, the effect of fisheries carbon sink will last for long time, which has remarkableeconomic, ecological and social benefits.Hebei province is located in the Bohai bay and one of the11coastal provinces in China.The marine resource in Hebei province is very rich and the main marine aquaculture productsare filter feeding shellfish. In this study, carbon stored in and removed by marine bivalves inHebei province were calculated by mass and value estimation, respectively, based on theassociated statistics yearbook date from2003to2012. The results showed that about22.37×104tons carbon was removed from the sea by harvest of bivalves from2003to2012,equivalent to82.02×104tons of CO2which will cost about490million Yuan for CO2fixation.As the same time, the marine bivalves utilized89.8×104tons particulate organic carbon andserved as a carbon sink of22.37×104to56.37×104tons by bio-deposition. The carbon fixationby feeding shellfish is remarkable, but it’s still far from the objective set by Hebei province.This study found that the development of feeding shellfish in Hebei province was veryslow, because the output of oyster, clam and mussel were in decreasing tendency in the past decade. In order to improve this situation, this thesis analyzed the main reasons of decreasingproduction of feeding shellfish on the field investigation, which at the feeding area inBeidaihe District Qinhuangdao City and Jiangezhuang Town Laoting County Tangshan City.Forthmore, the corresponding suggestions were made, such as to accelerate the constructionof artificial fishery reef and the development of marine ranching.At the present stage, the utilization rate of the shallow beach suitable for aquaculture isless than ten percent, which enjoys a great potential. Developing the carbon sink fishery，which not only provides high quality and safe seafood for human beings, but also contributessignificantly to improving the capacity of coastal ecosystem to absorb atmospheric CO2, canpromote the adjustment of industrial structure in Hebei province and achieve the target ofenergy-saving and emission-reducing.