School of Biological, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2033, Australia.
Kelp Forest Alliance, Sydney, NSW, 2034, Australia.
Nat Commun. 2023 Apr 18;14(1):1894. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37385-0.
While marine kelp forests have provided valuable ecosystem services for millennia, the global ecological and economic value of those services is largely unresolved. Kelp forests are diminishing in many regions worldwide, and efforts to manage these ecosystems are hindered without accurate estimates of the value of the services that kelp forests provide to human societies. Here, we present a global estimate of the ecological and economic potential of three key ecosystem services - fisheries production, nutrient cycling, and carbon removal provided by six major forest forming kelp genera (Ecklonia, Laminaria, Lessonia, Macrocystis, Nereocystis, and Saccharina). Each of these genera creates a potential value of between $64,400 and $147,100/hectare each year. Collectively, they generate between $465 and $562 billion/year worldwide, with an average of $500 billion. These values are primarily driven by fisheries production (mean $29,900, 904 Kg/Ha/year) and nitrogen removal ($73,800, 657 Kg N/Ha/year), though kelp forests are also estimated to sequester 4.91 megatons of carbon from the atmosphere/year highlighting their potential as blue carbon systems for climate change mitigation. These findings highlight the ecological and economic value of kelp forests to society and will facilitate better informed marine management and conservation decisions.
虽然海洋巨藻森林数千年来为人类提供了宝贵的生态系统服务，但这些服务的全球生态和经济价值在很大程度上仍未得到解决。在世界许多地区，巨藻森林正在减少，如果没有对巨藻森林为人类社会提供的服务的价值进行准确估计，那么对这些生态系统的管理工作就会受到阻碍。在这里，我们对三种关键生态系统服务——渔业生产、营养循环和碳去除——进行了全球估计，这些服务由六种主要的巨藻属（Ecklonia、Laminaria、Lessonia、Macrocystis、Nereocystis 和 Saccharina）提供。这六个属中的每一个都创造了每年 64400 美元至 147100 美元/公顷的潜在价值。它们的总和在全球范围内每年产生 4650 亿至 5620 亿美元，平均值为 5000 亿美元。这些价值主要是由渔业生产（平均 29900 美元，904 公斤/公顷/年）和氮去除（73800 美元，657 公斤 N/公顷/年）驱动的，尽管巨藻森林每年还估计从大气中吸收 491 万吨碳，这突出了它们作为蓝碳系统在缓解气候变化方面的潜力。这些发现强调了巨藻森林对社会的生态和经济价值，并将促进更明智的海洋管理和保护决策。
