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KNOWLEDGE BASE

What is blue carbon?

Carbon stored by coastal ecosystems: mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes.

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Beginner 1 min read blue carbonbasicsclimate

Blue carbon is the carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, mainly mangroves, seagrass meadows and tidal salt marshes.

These ecosystems grow in waterlogged, low-oxygen sediments. Dead roots and leaves decompose slowly there, so carbon accumulates in the soil for centuries. In mangroves a large share of the carbon is in the soil, not in the trees.

When the ecosystem is cleared or drained, stored carbon can be released as CO₂. That is why protecting intact mangroves and restoring degraded ones both matter for climate, as well as for fisheries, coastal protection and livelihoods.

How to interpret it

Atlas reports area (hectares) from maps and field data. Carbon figures in the Scenario Lab are illustrative brackets, not measurements: they only become meaningful once local soil and biomass data are added.

Limits. Carbon density varies widely between sites. Treat any single tC/ha number as an assumption to be replaced by measured values.

Related reading

Blue carbon projects and carbon markets

Mangrove carbon credits pay for protecting or restoring forest, but only if the carbon is real, additional and permanent.

How mangroves store carbon in their soil

Waterlogged mud keeps dead roots and leaves from rotting, so mangrove soils hold most of the ecosystem's carbon.

Seagrass meadows: blue carbon's quiet partner

Seagrasses are flowering marine plants whose sediments store carbon and shelter young fish.

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