Rhodolith beds in the Global Carbon Budget

EuroMarine Foresight Workshops (FSW) provide an opportunity for research teams to scope and collaborate on an existing or emerging topic in marine science research that would support the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters”. Workshops should take an innovative, “horizon scanning” approach to their topic and should target a scientific publication as an intended outcome

The main objective of the RHODOCARB workshop is to devise a research strategy for the evaluation of the rhodolith beds’ contribution to the marine carbon cycle. Lead experts will address and aim to resolve the fundamental knowledge gaps that currently prevent such evaluation. Stemming from multiple discussions among experts, and evidenced by the existing literature, it has become clear that knowledge is still dramatically lacking in three essential areas:
• Distribution (mapping) and characterization (biological, physical and chemical)
• Structural and functional diversity (including rhodoliths and associated flora and fauna)
• Carbon flux dynamics and carbon storage capacity (metabolic activity, biogeochemistry, C and CaCO3 cycling)

The expected outcomes of this workshop are:
• Synthesis/review paper on the current state of the art regarding known rhodolith distribution, areal extension, depth distribution, associated fauna and flora and carbon fluxes.
• Perspective paper outlining a research roadmap for the next decade, including approaches and methodologies designed to ensure the generation of comparable datasets in rhodolith-bed research
• Building and strengthening of an international research network to ensure knowledge transfer to a global scale and creating the conditions for the preparation of large-scale research proposals.

This workshop emerges as a response to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the Mission Restore our Oceans and Waters Objectives. RHODOCARB represents a step forward in our understanding of marine systems and the services they provide, and will provide valuable insights for the sustainable management of rhodolith beds.

The RHODOCARB foresight workshop focuses on the study of rhodolith beds and their contribution to the marine carbon cycle. Many advances have been made in the last few years regarding the globally relevant role of marine vegetated ecosystems in carbon sequestration as ocean-based solutions to combat rising CO2 emissions. However, the contribution of the widely distributed and extensive rhodolith beds is still unaccounted for, even though their global area by far exceeds that of other well-studied coastal habitats and recent evidence highlights their potentially significant role in this regard.

This foresight workshop plans to develop a roadmap/research strategy to generate comparable data sets of rhodolith beds’ current distribution and areal extension and the associated carbon pools and dynamics, feeding into a long-term goal of transferring the knowledge and know-how to an international consortium and carrying out the assessment at a global scale.