Antarctica likely carbon storage powerhouse: Study

WELLINGTON - Antarctica is likely a carbon storage powerhouse, storing more carbon than previously thought, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Antarctic seaweed may contribute up to nearly three per cent of the global macroalgal carbon uptake, according to the study, published in the journal Nature, Xinhua reported.

New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) conducted two surveys in Antarctica's Ross Sea region in 2021 and 2023, where they discovered vast amounts of seaweed - macroalgae that absorb CO2, a powerful greenhouse gas - from the atmosphere.

Leigh Tait, NIWA's marine ecologist, said until now, global models predicted that Antarctic seaweed had a negligible impact on CO2 uptake.

Antarctica was not considered a suitable enough habitat for seaweed and therefore had little contribution to global CO2 levels, Tait said, adding the surveys, however, discovered extensive seaweed coverage, and at much deeper depths than expected.

These new observations, satellite data, and published photosynthesis rates have been taken to estimate how much carbon the seaweed was likely absorbing, according to the study.

A large amount of drift algae found across all survey areas suggests that vast quantities of carbon may be locked up at the seafloor.

The discovery makes these environments even more valuable, as they not only provide key habitats for other species and play vital roles in the food web, but also have potentially big impacts on the rates that global greenhouse gases are stored at the seafloor, the study showed.

"Unfortunately, they are also particularly vulnerable to climate change," Tait said, adding that sea-ice coverage is changing dramatically around the Antarctic continent, and this has huge implications for carbon fixation by phytoplankton and macroalgae.

He called for understanding and protecting these environments. - BERNAMA-XINHUA