Project Description
Until recently, there has been no industry data to support kelp forests in carbon sink frameworks and carbon offset schemes. This project conducted pilot studies to measure the abundance and particle size of kelp material moving from shallow reefs to deeper, offshore habitats (40 to 100 m deep) off multiple reefs adjacent to the Perth metropolitan area, using underwater camera surveys.
It also quantified the residence time and cross shelf transport speeds of these particles using small flume experiments to determine resuspension thresholds for kelp on the seafloor.
This prototype provided a first estimate of the amount of kelp-carbon that is transported to deep marine sinks annually from kelp forests in Western Australia and is the first attempt to start to build an Australian-wide model of kelp carbon transport.
