Connections: Life, Climate and Conservation

TBC

Seabed sediments store vast amounts of carbon which help fight against climate change. However, as humans, we disrupt our seabed by bottom trawling for fish and building energy infrastructure from oil and gas platforms to offshore windfarms. This can alter the amount of carbon our sediments store but by how much and why? With this knowledge we can better understand our impact on our seabed and what it means for the future.

What is the smell of the sea, and how is this connected to oxygen? Everyone knows we all need oxygen to breathe. Trees, grass, houseplants are all part of this ‘ecosystem service’ that delivers only about HALF of the oxygen we breathe. So, every second breath we take must come from other oxygen providers – and they live in the sea. Seaweed, plankton, and cyanobacteria produce vital oxygen and other gases that transfer into the atmosphere. One of these, dimethyl sulfide or DMS, is a small sulfur-containing molecule; just another of the many gases that – next to oxygen – are produced by life in the ocean. In this talk, I will introduce the climate-cooling DMS, address how seaweed make this gas and foretell our future – not by looking into a crystal ball but by sharing with you the findings of our laboratory and field research.