Seaweed carbon removal cannot keep up with climate-driven loss
4 affiliations
- 1UWA Oceans Institute & School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- 2Benthic Communities Group, Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway
- 3Oceans Group, Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
- 4Oceans Group, International Blue Carbon Institute, Singapore, Singapore
Abstract
The prevailing narrative of seaweed carbon as a possible climate change mitigation solution overlooks the central challenge that climate change itself is adversely impacting seaweed forests worldwide, potentially shifting these ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources. In this Essay, we show that climate-induced seaweed forest loss is eroding their carbon sink capacity three to four orders of magnitude (1,000–10,000×) faster than it can currently be restored or recovered through active interventions. We consider that this stark disparity calls for a fundamental shift in seaweed carbon research away from a focus on future sequestration gains and toward explicitly assessing the risk of carbon emissions from climate-driven ecosystem loss.
Seaweed forests are widely viewed as natural climate solutions, yet warming oceans are driving their rapid decline. This Essay reveals that losses are outpacing restoration efforts by orders of magnitude, raising urgent concerns about their role as emerging sources of emissions.
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BibTeX
@article{filbeedexter2026seaweed,
title = {{Seaweed carbon removal cannot keep up with climate-driven loss}},
author = {Karen Filbee-Dexter and Albert Pessarrodona and Kira A. Krumhansl and Thomas Wernberg},
journal = {PLOS Biology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3003949},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003949},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Seaweed carbon removal cannot keep up with climate-driven loss
AU - Karen Filbee-Dexter
AU - Albert Pessarrodona
AU - Kira A. Krumhansl
AU - Thomas Wernberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/08
JO - PLOS Biology
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003949
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003949
AB - The prevailing narrative of seaweed carbon as a possible climate change mitigation solution overlooks the central challenge that climate change itself is adversely impacting seaweed forests worldwide, potentially shifting these ecosystems from carbon sinks to carbon sources. In this Essay, we show that climate-induced seaweed forest loss is eroding their carbon sink capacity three to four orders of magnitude (1,000–10,000×) faster than it can currently be restored or recovered through active interventions. We consider that this stark disparity calls for a fundamental shift in seaweed carbon research away from a focus on future sequestration gains and toward explicitly assessing the risk of carbon emissions from climate-driven ecosystem loss. Seaweed forests are widely viewed as natural climate solutions, yet warming oceans are driving their rapid decline. This Essay reveals that losses are outpacing restoration efforts by orders of magnitude, raising urgent concerns about their role as emerging sources of emissions.
SN - 1545-7885
ER -