Estuaries edged by tall grasses and wildflowers that are home to birds, crabs, tiny fish and other wildlife are more effective than young coastal forests at capturing and storing carbon dioxide, says a study.
The Cowichan Estuary on Vancouver Island captures and stores about double the amount of carbon compared with an actively growing 20-year-old Pacific Northwest forest of the same area, said the recently published study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Tristan Douglas, a University of Victoria graduate and lead author, said so-called blue carbon, or the greenhouse gas stored in marine and coastal ecosystems, is different from those held on the land.
He said saltwater estuaries, where fresh water meets the ocean, hold as much carbon as forests even though they represent just a small fraction of the area.
“The plants and algae that grow on the sea floor surface and in the water, they’re very efficient at taking carbon dioxide and converting it into organic molecules,” he said.
Trees sequester greenhouse gases but they have a limited lifespan, die, decompose and are converted back into carbon dioxide, he said.
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In estuaries, Douglas said, carbon is quickly converted into plant-based material, buried in the sediment and becomes oxygen-free just a few millimetres under the surface.
“So, it’s very likely that the deposited organic matter won’t get readmitted as carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.”
The study said estuaries have far more potential at mitigating climate change than forests, especially because of the threat of wildfires, which send plumes of carbon back into the atmosphere.
“If the carbon that’s stored in estuaries is not disturbed, it doesn’t have that same risk of being all of a sudden converted back into mass amounts of carbon dioxide,” Douglas said.
Waterlogged areas with plants such as salt marsh grasses, sedges, mangrove forests and seagrasses are particularly efficient natural carbon sinks, the study said.
“They capture and store up to 70 per cent of the organic carbon resident in marine systems despite only occupying 0.2 per cent of the ocean surface.”
Douglas said the world has lost about 70 per cent of mangroves and about 30 to 40 per cent of all marshlands and sea grasses in the past 100 years, and will lose another 40 per cent if it’s a “business as usual approach,” in the next century.
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The study suggested that human activities have reduced the carbon capture and storage capacity of the 466-hectare Cowichan-Koksilah Estuary by about 30 per cent, equivalent to putting 53 gasoline-powered motor vehicles back on the road.
Eelgrass on about 129 hectares of the intertidal zone has been disturbed by log handling and storage, while about 100 hectares of salt marsh was drained for farming and cattle pasture since being settled by colonists, it said.
Douglas said it is up to policy-makers to make it worthwhile to protect these areas by adopting more sustainable land-use and development practices.
The Cowichan Estuary has traditionally been used by the Coast Salish people and it is an important area for harvesting shellfish, salmon and seaweed, among other things. But since the mid-1800s, the land has mainly been used for agriculture and sawmills, he said.
“A lot of the historical accounts of eelgrass describe it covering almost all of the lower intertidal area, but now it’s really relegated to less than a third of where it historically grew.”
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These estuaries act as a buffer by tempering the incoming tides and mitigating storms, he said.
A number of these areas have been wiped out to protect coastal communities, he said, leaving them no room to adapt to rising sea levels.
“It’s pushed beyond its level of natural resiliency,” Douglas said.
“They can withstand a lot of gradual change, but things have changed so fast, and they’re put through so much stress that they can’t keep up with these current land practice uses.”
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
