Coastal Connections: Mapping the Extent, Health and Connectivity of Northern Ireland's Blue Carbon Ecosystems

Human actions have increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to levels higher than any measured in the past 160,000 years. Blue carbon ecosystems (including saltmarsh, mangrove, seagrass meadows, macroalgae) play a valuable role in aquatic carbon sequestration and storage, ranking among the most intense carbon sinks in the biosphere, and contribute significantly to global climate change mitigation1. However, these habitats are undergoing rapid and accelerating shifts in extent, quality and connectivity due to climate change and anthropogenic impacts. Within the UK, seagrass and saltmarsh provide a range of invaluable ecosystem services in addition to carbon storage, such as increasing biodiversity, sediment stabilization, coastal protection, fisheries enhancement, and increased water quality.

However, while these ecosystems are vital carbon sinks, they are in huge decline in the UK, and a lack of knowledge particularly in Northern Ireland, is one of the major issues facing their conservation. Recent work on Zostera marina (the most abundant UK seagrass species) in UK waters, identified both poor health2 and spatial decline3. These studies also highlighted a lack of baseline knowledge as although NI has 15% of the UK's Zostera meadows, this was represented by a single sample. Similarly, for salt marsh, although studies have been carried out in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, there is a lack of habitat data for NI. Therefore, an understanding of the current genetics and ecology of seagrass and saltmarsh habitats are crucial for future conservation efforts and for nature-based solutions to climate change.
This study will address this lack of data by;
1) Developing a baseline inventory of seagrass and salt marsh habitats in Northern Ireland using novel drone and sensor technology (e.g. high-resolution Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) /sensor datasets, image processing, soft-copy photogrammetry, and GIS to generate multidimensional geo-visual representations).
2) Ground-truth habitat locations and extent, and identify local pressures and habitat condition at each site. Include local measurements of carbon sequestration rates (CSRs) and estimating total carbon storage.
3) Identify the population genetic structure to enable forecasting of the likely response of blue carbon habitats to climate change (with a focus on population connectivity, local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity).
4) Understand and evaluate the co-benefits of restoration, such as biodiversity gains, enhancement of ecosystem services such as flood protection, water quality improvement, and community buy-in/ownership.
5) Initiating habitat restoration based on site specific carbon sequestration, storage potential and practicality of restoration actions, creating locally appropriate and genetically diverse populations.
This project will build on work already being carried out by DAERA, UW and the PIs. You will gain comprehensive experience in a range of remote sensing, genomics, bioinformatics and drive local restoration programs. The QUADRAT DTP further provides an extensive training programme for developing transferable professional skills. You will be part of vibrant postgraduate communities at the QUB and UoA.
The project provides an exciting opportunity to address fundamental knowledge gaps in key UK blue carbon habitats, using cutting edge remote sensing and genomics, and will contribute both to our understanding of these ecosystems, and to their practical restoration.

1 Duarte, C. M., Middelburg, J. & Caraco, N. Major role of marine vegetation on the oceanic carbon cycle. Biogeosciences 2, 1-8 (2005)
2 Jones BL, Unsworth RKF. 2016 The perilous state of seagrass in the British Isles.R. Soc. open sci.3: 150596.
3 Green AE, Unsworth RKF, Chadwick MA and Jones PJS (2021) Historical Analysis Exposes Catastrophic Seagrass Loss for the United Kingdom. Front. Plant Sci. 12:629962.