C-Floor: Managing shelf sea carbon cycle and greenhouse gas release from physical disturbance of the seafloor

05/11/2025 26 min Episodio 38
C-Floor: Managing shelf sea carbon cycle and greenhouse gas release from physical disturbance of the seafloor

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Episode Synopsis

In this episode of the Policy Pod, we spotlight the NERC funded project C-Floor and discuss this project, alongside ongoing complementary research, and implications it has on future ocean use and policy with Professor Martin Solan and Professor Susan Gourvenec from the University of Southampton.
C-Floor explores how human activities disturbing the seafloor can affect the carbon cycle in the ocean and knock on impacts like the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. The project focuses on single activities like bottom trawling and then explores the cumulative impact of several activities, including climate change pressure, happening together.
With team members from a range of background (marine ecologists, social economists, geotechnical engineers, policy officers) the project will also explore what society values when managing the marine environment, coastal community impacts, and how we can continue fishing sustainably to deliver a tool to policymakers to support evidence-based decisions.
about the project and the interdisciplinary team on the C-floor webpage. 
about the related project, Bowie, investigating how fixed offshore wind (OW) farm impact the marine ecosystem: https://ecowind.uk/projects/bowie/

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