Speaker

About the speaker: 

Hayley Swanlund is a PhD researcher at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI). Her research focuses on the potential enhancement of key ecosystem services by seaweed aquaculture, including the quantification and valuation of these services, and informing ways to maximise their benefits. She has an aquatic ecology research and conservation background, with experience in fisheries and aquaculture sustainability, previously working for NGOs including the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-UK), government and closely with industry.

Company info:

The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), based near Oban, is Scotland's largest and oldest independent marine science organisation, dedicated to delivering marine science for a healthy and sustainable marine environment through research, education, enterprise and engagement with society. It is a charitable organisation (009206) and a partner of UHI (University of the Highlands and Islands).

Presentation: 

Global seaweed aquaculture has the potential to enrich natural capital and enhance the supply of ecosystem services. In addition to food and other seaweed-based products, the cultivation of seaweed could provide numerous environmental and social benefits, but much less is known about these wider contributions. Despite uncertainties and limited direct evidence of these non-provisioning ecosystem services, seaweed aquaculture has received considerable attention for its potential to contribute to sustainability efforts, especially in Europe. Of particular focus is seaweed aquaculture’s potential enhancement of climate regulation through carbon sequestration and habitat provisioning supporting biodiversity. Among the limited number of studies that have attempted to measure these ecosystem services associated with seaweed aquaculture, estimates of the magnitude of these benefits and the methods used to measure them vary considerably. Climate regulation is typically quantified through measuring carbon content in seaweed biomass, but there are various pathways and fluxes for carbon sequestration, including sedimentary burial and deep-sea export. Species that use seaweed farms as habitat are typically monitored with visual survey methods that may not capture the full breadth of biodiversity. For this study, multiple methods were employed to quantify carbon and biodiversity in sediments beneath four kelp farms in the United Kingdom, including emerging approaches leveraging environmental DNA. These methods have seldom been applied to seaweed aquaculture but may act as replicable, less labour-intensive, and potentially more cost-effective methods compared to more traditional approaches. Variations in ecosystem service quantifications were found between kelp farms and control sites, suggesting kelp farms might have localised effects. Measures of ecosystem service delivery associated with seaweed aquaculture will be important for informing policy, management, and business decisions that will help facilitate the expansion of the industry in Europe and other non-traditional regions. To fully assess seaweed aquaculture’s impact on non-provisioning ecosystem service delivery, more research and standardisation of accessible methods are needed to inform Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) for risk management and to strengthen data integrity.