SPEAKER: Dr Micheli Duarte de Paula Costa, Research Fellow, Blue Carbon Lab, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

DATE & TIME: Friday, 4th September 2020 @ 12:45 noon

LOCATION: Seminar to be streamed via Zoom. Click HERE to connect.

---

ABSTRACT.

Blue carbon ecosystems (seagrass, saltmarshes and mangroves) are amongst the most efficient natural carbon sinks, however, these ecosystems are declining globally. Because of their ability to capture CO2, there is an increasing recognition of their role in climate change mitigation, and consequently, a growing demand to incorporate them into greenhouse gas mitigation strategies.

We used the Great Barrier Reef catchments as a case study for mapping regional scale variation on blue carbon stocks and modelling opportunities from large-scale wetland restoration in the region. This information is key for informing potential future investments in blue carbon, thereby guiding future actions for climate change mitigation while also improving the co-benefits (e.g. nursery, coastal protection, pollution filter) provided by these ecosystems.

---

BIO.

Micheli Costa is a Research Fellow in Peter Macreadie’s Blue Carbon Lab at the Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University. She obtained her PhD in biological oceanography at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (Brazil), and her research focuses on marine quantitative ecology and conservation.

She has worked on marine spatial planning, climate change, species distribution modelling and decision science in the past 5 years and is currently conducting research on the effect of wetland restoration on blue carbon stocks and sequestration rates.

For more information click HERE.

---

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone.

Thanking you in advance!