Sumilen

The alarming rise of CO2 in the atmosphere, which has reached the threshold of 400 ppm for the first time in the last 3 to 5 million years, and the certainty that fossil fuels will continue to be burned in the next decades, has made evident the need to intensify efforts in the study of the natural biospheric carbon sinks. SUMILEN will provide solid methodological and conceptual tools and up-to-date estimates to assess the role of seagrass sediments as long-term carbon stores helping to control that rise. This project represents a step forward from previous work? by extending the current estimates of stocks and fluxes of carbon to seagrass sediments, predicting their evolution over time, creating a framework from the analysis of last studies and assessing the economical potential of the carbon in carbon markets. To carry out the project, SUMILEN reunites a multidisciplinary international group encompassing ecologists, edaphologists, microbiologists, and carbon market analysts, from Spain (Catalonia, Galicia, and Basque Country), Australia (Perth), Brazil (São Paulo), and England (London).