Comments on: How Sea Otters Fight Climate Change http://revmodo.com/2012/09/10/sea-otters-fight-climate-change/ Covering the clean energy industry Sun, 04 Nov 2012 07:47:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Jeffroe Bodinehttp://revmodo.com/2012/09/10/sea-otters-fight-climate-change/#comment-1098 Jeffroe Bodine Mon, 17 Sep 2012 04:58:00 +0000 http://revmodo.com/?p=8551#comment-1098 although kelp may absorb CO2 that CO2 is quickly released back into the seawater as the kelp gets eaten by herbivores or reduced by bacteria. The shells of invertebrates however build up on the seafloor. When those biogenic carbonates are buried more than 10 centimeters they are sequestered for a very long time, sometimes millions of years. Red sea urchins are a major contributor to the sequestered carbon contained in carbonate sand deposits along our coast. Sea cucumbers also play an important part in the carbon cycle.(Schneider et al 2011) Their digestive processes dissolve the carbonate sands and help buffer against acidification. Sea otters reduce these invertebrates and effectively negate the long term carbon sink the invertebrates contribute to.There are countless other invertebrates likewise reduced to very low populations which sea otters effectively remove as contributors to the calcite/aragonite sink. Without a full accounting for the negative effects along with any potential positive interaction with kelp you are simply cherry picking the data. Otters effects on kelp in Monterey Bay south to Southern California are overwhelmed by waves and the physical dynamics of winter storms (Reed et al 2009) so kelp effects are local at best. (Kvitek et el 1989) documents the population crash experienced by invertebrates as sea otters colonize new area. The Kvitec study also documents the reduction in corallines as fleshy algae freed from herbivore grazing take over. In some locations coralline algae is reduced 100%. What is the volume of CO2 sequester by corallines and what is the long term fate of that CO2?So before you start contemplating how much money you might finagle from a carbon offset fund maybe you need to do more research on long term verses short term carbon sinks." although kelp may absorb CO2 that CO2 is quickly released
back into the seawater as the kelp gets eaten by herbivores or reduced
by bacteria. The shells of invertebrates however build up on the
seafloor. When those biogenic carbonates are buried more than 10
centimeters they are sequestered for a very long time, sometimes
millions of years. Red sea urchins are a major contributor to the
sequestered carbon contained in carbonate sand deposits along our coast.
Sea cucumbers also play an important part in the carbon
cycle.(Schneider et al 2011) Their digestive processes dissolve the
carbonate sands and help buffer against acidification. Sea otters reduce
these invertebrates and effectively negate the long term carbon sink
the invertebrates contribute to.

There are countless other invertebrates likewise reduced to
very low populations which sea otters effectively remove as contributors
to the calcite/aragonite sink. Without a full accounting for the
negative effects along with any potential positive interaction with kelp
you are simply cherry picking the data. Otters effects on kelp in
Monterey Bay south to Southern California are overwhelmed by waves and
the physical dynamics of winter storms (Reed et al 2009) so kelp effects
are local at best. (Kvitek et el 1989) documents the
population crash experienced by invertebrates as sea otters colonize new
area. The Kvitec study also documents the reduction in corallines as
fleshy algae freed from herbivore grazing take over. In some locations
coralline algae is reduced 100%. What is the volume of CO2 sequester by
corallines and what is the long term fate of that CO2?

So before you start contemplating how much money you might
finagle from a carbon offset fund maybe you need to do more research on
long term verses short term carbon sinks.”

]]>