![]() Carbon capture on land is happening at increasing rates coincident with rising atmospheric CO 2 levels (e.g., global greening, see Saban et al. So, the area/biomass of organisms capturing and storing carbon needs to be increased to remove more carbon than is being returned to the atmosphere to cause a net removal of CO 2 from the atmosphere and thus mitigate climate change. However, upon the death of these organisms, their bodies will pass through the food web and most of the carbon stored in them will ultimately be released as CO 2 back into the water and atmosphere. Targeted nature protection, restoration and rewilding inherently starts with plants as the base of food webs, thus involving carbon capture (through photosynthesis) and storage (in the body of organisms). Halting biodiversity loss, mitigating climate change and improving societal quality of life are not mutually exclusive, and nature-based solutions (NbS) are an important part of achieving these aims simultaneously. In order to mediate multiple stressors, research should focus on wider verification of blue carbon gains, projecting future change, and the broader environmental and economic benefits to safeguard blue carbon ecosystems through law. fishing, warming, ocean acidification, non-indigenous species and plastic pollution) but not their magnitude of impact. Blue carbon change from glacier retreat has been least well quantified, and although emerging fjords are small areas, they have high storage-sequestration conversion efficiencies, whilst blue carbon in polar waters faces many diverse and complex stressors. These also generate small positive feedbacks from scouring, minimised by repeat scouring at biodiversity hotspots. Unlike loss of sea ice, which enhances existing sinks, ice shelf losses generate brand new carbon sinks both where giant icebergs were, and in their wake. However, sea ice losses also create positive feedbacks in shallow waters through increased iceberg movement and scouring of benthos. Decreasing sea ice extent drives longer (not necessarily larger biomass) smaller cell-sized phytoplankton blooms, increasing growth of many primary consumers and benthic carbon storage-where sequestration chances are maximal. Estimates suggest that, amongst these, reduced duration of seasonal sea ice is most important. Here we explore the size and complex dynamics of blue carbon gains with spatiotemporal changes in sea ice (60–100 MtCyear −1), ice shelves (4–40 MtCyear −1 = giant iceberg generation) and glacier retreat (< 1 MtCyear −1). In contrast, blue carbon on polar continental shelves have stronger pathways to sequestration and have increased with climate-forced marine ice losses-becoming the largest known natural negative feedback on climate change. However, as Earth’s biological carbon sinks also shrink, remediation has become a key part of the narrative for terrestrial ecosystems. Diminishing prospects for environmental preservation under climate change are intensifying efforts to boost capture, storage and sequestration (long-term burial) of carbon.
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