Measuring The Value Of Blue Carbon In China Coastal Zone

IPCC has pointed that the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by 40 percent since industrialization.Increasing emissions of greenhouse gas are an important cause of global climate change and have a serious impact on global food production and and livelihoods.Climate change is one of the major challenges of the 21st century.The study shows that blue carbon which is captured by marine ecosystems is more than half of the biochar from the global natural system,Maintaining and improving the ability of marine ecosystems to capture and stock the carbon dioxideis one of the key measures to address climate change,but the role of marine ecosystems in mitigating the climate change has been overlooked for a long time.One of the important reasons is that the blue carbon is not valued rightly.In this paper,we have combed the blue carbon theory system,drawing on the assessment method of overseas academic community,we use the In VEST model and ArcGIS software to analyze the carbon sequestration and value as well as spatial distribution of coastal vegetated habitats,estuary,phytoplankton and cultured shellfish.The main achievements were as follows:1)This paper estimated the carbon storage,carbon sequestration and carbon sequestration rate in coastal vegetated habitats,estuaries,phytoplankton and cultured shellfish of China.This four carbon sinks would sequestrate 3.15 million tons carbon from the atmosphere per year,equivalent to an annual realization of 11.57 million tons of CO2 emissions reduction,which can offset CO2 emissions of China's railway sector.Phytoplankton is the largest carbon sink,which sequestrates 1.17 million tons carbon per year,accounting for total blue carbon sequestration 37.16%;next one is cultured shellfish,the carbon sequestration is 0.76 million tons per year,accounting for total blue carbon sequestration 24.21%;the proportion of carbon sequestration in estuarine and vegetated habitat was 20.54%and 18.08%,respectively.Although the total amount of carbon sequestration in vegetated habitats is the smallest,the carbon sequestration efficiency is the highest,which is 383.14 t/km2 per year;next one is estuary,the carbon sequestration rate is 77.65 t/km2 per year,phytoplankton carbon sequestration rate is the lowest,only 4.50 t/km2 per year.Taking into account the high carbon sequestration efficiency of plant habitat and cultured shellfish,and the two carbon sinks can be controlled by human activities,wetland restoration and increase the production of shellfish can be used as an important measure to mitigate climate change in China.2)This paper evaluated the economic value of blue carbon in coastal vegetated habitats,estuaries,phytoplankton and cultured shellfish.The results showed that these four carbon blue sinks valued 522.37 million dollars per year,the highest blue carbon value is phytoplankton,which is 175.83 million dollars per year,the proportion is 33.66%;the second one is estuary,which is 123.38 million dollars per year,the proportion is 23.62%.The blue carbon values of cultured shellfish and plant habitats is 114.57 million dollars per year and 108.59 million dollars per year,accounting for 21.93%and 20.79%respectively.3)This paper analyzed the influence of " South Red and North Willow" and the expansion of cultured shellfish.After the "South Red North Willow" plan,Vegetated habitat carbon sequestration will be 0.74 million tons per year,increasing 30.41%.Vegetated habitat carbon value will increase to 141.61 million dollars per year.As the increasing production of cultured shellfish in China,the annual carbon sequestration will increase 0.19 million tons per year,cultured shellfish carbon value will increase 10.93 million dollars per year,the growth rate is 24.69%.After the "South Red North Willow" plan,Chinese carbon sequestration mission will be completed according to the "National Wetland Conservation Convention Action Plan".The result of this study on blue carbon,together with the information of value of other marine ecosystems services,can provide support for development of coastal zone ecosystem protection and restoration strategy.