Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: Blue Carbon in Marine Protected Areas: Part 2 A Blue Carbon Assessment of Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
Coastal and marine ecosystems play a significant role in the global carbon cycle, sequestering and storing carbon over long timescales. These “blue carbon” ecosystems help mitigate climate change and its impacts by facilitating the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into the ocean and transporting carbon into sediments or deep waters where it can remain indefinitely if undisturbed. Inclusion of these coastal and ocean processes as part of the solution to global climate change is essential in achieving global carbon mitigation and emission reduction goals; however, blue carbon is often overlooked in climate mitigation policies.