A new edition of this report is now available, please refer to this version of the report: NERR094 Carbon Storage and Sequestration by Habitat: A review of the evidence 2021.
Terrestrial and marine managers can mitigate climate change by adopting practices which promote carbon storage and reduce emissions while enhancing the biodiversity value of ecosystems.
Human activities are having a direct and indirect impact on the global carbon cycle and the capacity of ecosystems to sequester and store CO2 is decreasing through, for example, deforestation. Meanwhile, we continue producing significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by burning fossil fuels. Despite some improvements, agriculture is still the second largest source of greenhouse gases in the UK.
Carbon storage by marine and coastal habitats has been less studied than terrestrial stores, but recent evidence indicates that they may be of comparable importance.
The aims of this Natural England cross-cutting Evidence project were:
- To collate information and identify knowledge gaps on carbon stocks (both in vegetation and soils) for important terrestrial, coastal and marine habitats in England.
- To determine how different management options may impact on sequestration or loss of carbon by habitat.