The Use of Seaweeds Aquaculture for Carbon Sequestration: A Strategy for Climate Change Mitigation

Seaweed has the ability to use carbon from the environment through photosynthesis to produce biomass. The aim of this study is to estimate carbon sequestration by seaweed aquaculture as a strategy for climate change mitigation. The study was undertaken at Gerupuk Bay, Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Four seaweed variants, such as Kappaphycus alvarezii var. Tambalang and Maumere, K. striatum and Eucheuma denticulatum, were cultivated with long-line system for three cultivation periods, starting from July to November, 2013. Each cultivation period was taken about 45 days. Parameters including weight increasement and carbon content of seaweeds were measured every 15 days of culture for each cultivation period in order to calculate carbon sequestration rate. The results showed that E. denticulatum had the highest carbon sequestration rate and significantly different (P < 0.05) compared with other variants for every cultivation period. Different seaweed variants have different capacity on carbon sequestration. Optimal utilization of the potential area for seaweed aquaculture could reduce a great quantity of CO2 from the atmosphere and help to mitigate global climate change process.