Two £30K awards from the Scottish Government will support research into understanding risks to marine carbon stores and drive delivery on risk-management tools to inform policy.

The Scottish Government has partnered with academics at the University of St Andrews to tackle a significant evidence gap, with the aim of informing new policies to improve the management of Scotland’s seabed.

This collaboration is supported by two £30,000 funding awards and seeks to enhance understanding of Scotland's marine environment, particularly seabed sediments, as major stores of organic carbon.

These marine carbon stores are significantly larger than Scotland's land-based carbon stores, which have increasingly become the focus of restoration efforts aimed at reducing Scotland's land-based greenhouse gas emissions.

Professor Bill Austin, from the University's Scottish Oceans Institute explained: "Scotland’s vast seabed carbon stores are vulnerable to a growing number of pressures, including ongoing climate change, and our research will focus on assessing the risks to these stores, specifically from seabed disturbances.

"We know that some of the carbon held in seabed sediments is highly reactive and, when disturbed, will result in the release of that carbon. While it remains scientifically challenging to quantify the actual greenhouse gas emissions resulting from these cumulative and widespread seabed pressures, our research is developing an improved understanding of the risks posed to the most vulnerable stores of carbon.

"We are now on the cusp of delivering improved risk management tools that will help the Scottish Government deliver a more sustainable outcome for our marine environment, potentially guiding new policies to help protect these vulnerable stores of carbon."

Craig Smeaton, Lecturer in the School of Geography & Sustainable Development at St Andrews, added: "The funding provided by the Scottish Government has allowed the purchase of a new experimental system to simulate natural and anthropogenic sediment resuspension. This will support in-depth investigation of these seabed disturbances and their impact on the carbon stored in seabed sediments."