Carbon in UK’S exclusive territorial waters fully mapped

CARBON stored in the UK’S offshore exclusive economic zone (EEZ) has been fully mapped for the first time to help tackle climate change.

Scientists at the University of St Andrews have gathered updated evidence of marine carbon stores from difficult-to-reach locations around the seabed. An EEZ is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.

Attempts to bring data from the lochs, estuaries and adjacent deep waters to develop the first full understanding of carbon near the surface over the entire EEZ has previously proved logistically difficult.

Dr Craig Smeaton, a research fellow at the university, said: “To overcome the issues encountered by earlier studies, nearly 275,000 data points were compiled describing the sediment type on the seabed and allowing the creation of a bespoke high-resolution map of the UK EEZ seabed.

“This, in conjunction with carbon data from across the UK EEZ, allowed a detailed picture of the spatial distribution of [carbon] storage across the seafloor.”

Professor William Austin added: “If we can manage some of these carbonrich hotspots we might reduce the release of greenhouse gases that would otherwise contribute to global warming.”