NOAA Coastal Blue Carbon

2019 Accomplishments

Strengthened Policy and Research Partnerships

Coastal salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds are incredibly efficient at capturing and 

storing large quantities of carbon – referred to as “coastal blue carbon.” NOAA’s coastal blue 

carbon activities are a collaborative effort across NOAA, including the National Marine Fisheries 

Service, National Ocean Service, and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research offices.

For additional Information, visit oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coastal-blue-carbon/ | Page 1

○ Conducted research in a collaboration between Virginia Institute of Marine Science and NOAA’s National Centers for 

Coastal Ocean Science, resulting in two papers investigating fertilization impacts on salt marsh carbon sequestration. The 

first describes how inundation patterns and porewater chemistry alter the impact of nitrogen fertilization on carbon 

burial in salt marshes. The second reported differences in net carbon flux between interior and edge marshes in North 

Carolina. The papers were accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences.

○ Continued to advance coastal blue carbon research through NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System, 

multiple Hollings Scholars, and involvement with interagency research projects including a NASA Carbon Monitoring 

System-funded project (Data-Model Integration for Monitoring and Forecasting Coastal Wetland Carbon Exchanges: 

Serving Local to National Greenhouse Gas Inventories). 

○ Funded (through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative) the Research and Management 

of Carbon in Wetlands to Advance Coastal Restoration, Resilience and Climate Action workshop, which featured new 

guidance and tools for managers and policymakers to advance blue carbon research and application in New England and 

beyond.

○ Moderated a Regional coastal blue carbon panel entitled, “What's Next for Blue Carbon; Management, Policy and 

Science.”

○ Funded (through the National Estuarine Research Reserve System Science Collaborative) Feasibility Planning for Pacific 

Northwest Blue Carbon Finance Projects, which demonstrated the feasibility of including carbon finance in funding 

strategies that support the conservation and restoration of tidal wetlands, eelgrasses, and coastal lowland sea level rise 

buffer areas in the Pacific Northwest. The project advanced local stakeholders’ understanding of next steps for blue 

carbon management and financing opportunities for land management actions in coastal communities.

○ Supported Restore America’s Estuaries, in partnership with Roger Williams University School of Law and Rhode Island Sea 

Grant, to write Legal Issues Affecting Blue Carbon Projects on Publicly-Owned Coastal Wetlands. The study, published in 

2020, provides a framework for project design by identifying legal considerations for blue carbon offset project on public 

coastal wetlands. 

Increased Awareness of Progress and Opportunities

○ Work by NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science scientists that 

was the basis of a 2019 Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 

article was recently featured in NC Sea Grant Coastwatch magazine.

○ At the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, NOAA’s Air Resources 

Laboratory scientists presented research results from a field study of 

ammonia and carbon exchange over a salt marsh ecosystem at the Delaware 

National Estuarine Research Reserve.

○ Multiple Sea Grant programs supported researchers’ progress, results, and 

leveraging of successes related to coastal blue carbon work. For example, 

Louisiana Sea Grant publicized the results of Dr. Tracy Quirk’s study of the 

carbon storage capacity of Louisiana salt marshes and her team’s findings 

regarding the role of vegetation density.

○ Continued to support Restore America’s Estuaries Blue Carbon Buzz and 

other blue carbon community of practice efforts. 

NOAA scientists drill for a sediment core at Camp 

Lejeune Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, North 

Carolina. (Photo credit: C. Currin, NOAA NCCOS)
| Page 2

Enhanced Incorporation Into Science and Policy

o Continued to lead, in close partnership with EPA, the inclusion of coastal 

wetlands in the annual U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory, providing estimates 

of carbon stock change and methane emissions. The U.S. remains one of the 

few countries in the world to release detailed country-specific data on carbon 

stocks, stock change, nitrous oxide and methane emissions associated with 

the management of tidal wetlands for the conterminous states. This effort 

has resulted in numerous publications and significant international interest. 

The United Nations 2019 Expert Review Team’s Report on the individual 

review of the inventory submission of the United States of America 

submitted in 2018 commended the U.S. for reporting on coastal wetlands. 

NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management Coastal Change Analysis Program 

(C-CAP) data are essential to this process. NOAA also supported a 2019 

assessment on the feasibility for incorporating seagrass into the Inventory. 

NOAA's foundational work has been shared with numerous countries, 

Goals for 2020

For additional Information, visit oceanservice.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coastal-blue-carbon/

❏ Continue to support research to feed the U.S. Greenhouse Gas inventory and lay groundwork for greater international 

capacity building (beginning in earnest in FY21 with expected funding support from the State Department) to assist 

other nations to estimate the blue carbon storage associated with coastal wetlands. 

❏ Update NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) with new data, which 

provides the basis for coastal wetlands accounting within the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

❏ Contribute to the Coastal Engineering Journal Special Edition on Blue Carbon and Green Infrastructure (TBD 2021).

❏ Contribute to the inclusion of blue carbon management principles in guidance document on innovative financing for 

coastal infrastructure.

Strengthened Policy and Research Partnerships (cont.)

o Supported an expansion of the 2009 report, Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s at Stake?

(Pendleton, 2009), to include carbon sequestration benefits of estuaries. 

o Funded (through the Effects of Sea Level Rise Program) projects in Coos Estuary (OR) and Grays Bay (WA) that evaluate 

how restored and natural wetlands sequester carbon, buffer flooding impacts, and enhance benefits to fisheries. 

NOAA Coastal Blue Carbon

2019 Accomplishments

Staff from the N.C. Coastal Reserve and National 

Estuarine Research Reserve. (Source: NC Sea Grant)

incorporated into several books and publications including the first 'Blue Carbon Primer,’ and catalyzed additional 

investments by U.S. agencies such as USGS, NASA and NSF.

o NOAA’s National Centers for Ocean Coastal Science supported North Carolina’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the state’s 

Natural and Working Lands. NOAA provided data on carbon stocks in North Carolina coastal wetlands for use in models 

and storymaps to document current conditions in coastal wetlands, opportunities for restoration and conservation, and 

potential impacts of accelerated sea level rise on marsh distribution and carbon burial.

o NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries was invited to participate in a side event for the U.N. Framework 

Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Madrid in December 2019. Dubbed the “Blue COP” because 

of its strong focus on the ocean’s role in climate change, the Conference featured side events on marine protected areas 

and on blue carbon. The Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary presented on work by the Sanctuary to restore 

blue carbon habitat and implement climate adaptation actions. 

o NOAA is working with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a tri-national organization that supports 

environmental cooperation projects across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, to include a blue carbon component in the 

Commission’s 2019-2020 project on marine conservation and climate adaptation. The project aims to convene blue 

carbon researchers, marine protected area managers, and policy experts in 2020 to identify opportunities for 

collaboration across North America.