On Wednesday 27 April, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published an exploratory study in an attempt to classify terrestrial and marine habitats in Europe according to their carbon stocks and carbon sequestration capacities. The aim is to improve knowledge to reconcile the objectives of nature restoration and conservation with those of climate change mitigation.
Among terrestrial ecosystems, forests have the highest carbon sequestration rates, up to three times those of wetlands and agricultural land, according to the EEA. Forests absorb more carbon above and below ground over the same period of time than other ecosystems, but there are many differences depending on the location of forests in Europe.
Wetlands have relatively low carbon sequestration rates, but can accumulate carbon for decades or even centuries, which explains their very high storage capacity, on average exceeding that of all other habitats.
The relatively high sequestration rates of land used for agriculture are mainly harvested and contribute little to carbon storage in nature.
Marine ecosystems are the largest long-term carbon sink in the biosphere, storing and recycling about 93% of the Earth’s carbon dioxide.
See the study: https://aeur.eu/f/1dj (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)