Calvyn F. A. Sondak, Put O. Ang, John Beardall, Alecia Bellgrove, Sung Min Boo, Grevo S. Gerung, Christopher D. Hepburn, Dang Diem Hong, Zhengyu Hu, Hiroshi Kawai, Danilo Largo, Jin Ae Lee, Phaik-Eem Lim, Jaruwan Mayakun, Wendy A. Nelson, Jung Hyun Oak, Siew-Moi Phang, Dinabandhu Sahoo, Yuwadee Peerapornpis, Yufeng Yang, Ik Kyo Chung
Seaweed aquaculture beds (SABs) that support the production of seaweed and their diverse products, cover extensive coastal areas, especially in the Asian-Pacific region, and provide many ecosystem services such as nutrient removal and CO2 assimilation. The use of SABs in potential carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation efforts has been proposed with commercial seaweed production in China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam, and is at a nascent stage in Australia and New Zealand. We attempted to consider the total annual potential of SABs to drawdown and fix anthropogenic CO2. In the last decade, seaweed production has increased tremendously in the Asian-Pacific region. In 2014, the total annual production of Asian-Pacific SABs surpassed 2.61 × 106 t dw. Total carbon accumulated annually was more than 0.78 × 106 t y−1, equivalent to over 2.87 × 106 t CO2 y−1. By increasing the area available for SABs, biomass production, carbon accumulation, and CO2 drawdown can be enhanced. The conversion of biomass to biofuel can reduce the use of fossil fuels and provide additional mitigation of CO2 emissions. Contributions of seaweeds as carbon donors to other ecosystems could be significant in global carbon sequestration. The ongoing development of SABs would not only ensure that Asian-Pacific countries will remain leaders in the global seaweed industry but may also provide an added dimension of helping to mitigate the problem of excessive CO2 emissions. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Department of Oceanography, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, South Korea; Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Sam Ratulangi University, Manado, 95115, Indonesia; Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T, SAR, Hong Kong; School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, 3800, VIC, Australia; Deakin University, Geelong, Australia; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Integrative Ecology, Warrnambool Campus, P.O. Box 423, Warrnambool, 3280, VIC, Australia; Chungnam National University, Daejon, 305-764, South Korea; Department of Marine Science, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand; Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, 10000, Viet Nam; Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China; Kobe University, Kobe, 657-850, Japan; University of San Carlos, Cebu City, 6000, Philippines; School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Inje University, Gimhae, 621-749, South Korea; Institute of Biological Sciences and Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia; Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, 90112, Songkhla, Thailand; National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Private Bag 14-901, Wellington, 6241, New Zealand; School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand; Marine Research Institute, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, South Korea; Marine Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India; Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand; Institute of Hydrobiology, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China
