Image: Katarina Konradsson
Research project The Baltic Sea is a powerhouse for organic carbon burial and thus a major contributor to the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide as a nature-based solution to climate change. Despite this, we do not have a good understanding of the source of the organic carbon buried in the Baltic.
This project will determine source of organic carbon buried in the Baltic focussing on characterising the chemical fingerprints of potential source material, and specifically material linked to human activities on land including forestry, farming and urban land use.
Up to 50% of the organic carbon buried in marine sediments may be of terrestrial origin, but we know very little about its source and quality. Critically, different sources of organic carbon can alter the capacity of marine sediment carbon pools to act as natural climate solutions. To make a major advance in understanding, we need to determine the sources supplying organic carbon to the Baltic carbon burial sites. This project will make the first steps in that understanding by exploring if there are identifiable chemical differences in the organic material that could be provided from human land use including forestry, farming and agriculture.
