Climate change effects

The climate change topic focuses on the assessment of the distribution of marine habitats of high CO2 sequestration value, the distribution of seabed higher plants (seagrass and other higher plants) communities and their potential for CO2 sequestration.

Assessment of the CO2 sequestration potential of marine coastal habitats and restoration of such habitats. 

The seagrass restoration experiment will be carried out in the proximity of the island of Prangli, in a 2-5 m deep area in the area of a former submerged sandflat. The restoration of the habitat will be carried out using a cord method. The state of the transplanted plants and the development of the new seagrass beds will be monitored throughout the project. Deliverable 10.6: Restoration of marine ecosystems: a manual for users, prepared by the Horizon MERCES project, will serve as the methodological basis. The work will result in the development of effective methodologies that can be applied to the restoration and/or restoration of valuable marine habitats in the Estonian marine area.

In 2022, fieldwork and sampling were carried out to determine the carbon content of seabed vegetation communities. Samples were collected from seagrass communities (Prangli, Väinameri, Gulf of Riga) as well as from other higher plant communities. The carbon content was separately determined in the soil part of the assemblage and in the water column. The collected samples are currently being analysed. In the spring, additional samples will be collected from the same communities to get a seasonal aspect. In summer 2022, an experiment was carried out on the south coast of the island of Prangli to restore seagrass communities (Figure 5). For this purpose, eelgrass planting material was collected from a few kilometres away and eelgrass plants were planted in three different locations. In autumn 2022, a first series of observations was carried out – all sites had the planting material intact.

Figure 3: Eelgrass (Zostera marina) restoration experiment in 2022 near the island of Prangli.

2023 Zostera marina transpülantation eksperiment underwater footage:  mvi_0475.mov