Oceans & marine

Ocean

Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia.

Year: 2020

Photographer: Giorgia Doglioni (edited by Frameworks)


Green river

Seagrass Meadows in Greece

Year: 2017

Photographer: Dimitris Poursanidis

Re-oxygenating the Baltic

The deep waters in the Baltic are severely deoxygenated. Although the causes of the current state are complex, this is mainly a result of increased eutrophication from sewage and agricultural runoff from surrounding lands, which leads to extreme bioproductivity (Rolff et al. 2022). Some species manage to survive in the upper water layers, but many organisms living on the seafloor are severely impacted by the hypoxia, thereby influencing the health of a wide network of ecosystems and biochemical processes. There are attempts to reduce nutrient runoff into the Baltic (see for example: https://helcom.fi/baltic-sea-action-plan/). However, some argue these will be insufficient and argue for engineering solutions to the issue.

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Cultivating algae for export to Japan, Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa.

Year: 2013

Photographer: Yannick Beadoin

Seaweed and macro algae cultivation

The potential of carbon sequestration by marine based plants such as mangroves, seagrass and algae, often referred to as blue carbon, and the importance of better understanding it, has clearly been recognised (Mcleod et al. 2011). The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019) concluded blue carbon can play an important role in both climate regulation and adaptation. The term algae groups together several kinds of marine photosynthetic organisms. These are often subdivided into very small microalgae like phytoplankton, and larger macroalgae like kelp and seaweed. Although there is still large uncertainty about the total amount of carbon sequestered by these marine organisms, a recent estimate by Duarte et al. (2022) indicated that all macroalgae took in as much CO2 as the Amazon rainforest.

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Cape Petrel (Daption capense), Antarctic Peninsula

The Cape Petrel, also called Cape Pigeon, is one of the most common seabirds of the Southern Ocean and around Antarctica. They have an estimated population of around 2 million. Cape Petrels feed mainly on crustacean, including krill, and are often seen following ships.

Year: 2016

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Reflective foams and bubbles on oceans

Sea water has a low albedo of around 0.1 and therefore absorbs most of the incoming solar energy. Since water covers over two thirds of the Earth’s surface, changes to this albedo can potentially cause significant changes in global temperatures.

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Coastal Archipelago Park of the South Coast ("Sørlandet") of Norway, colors at the shoreline (1)

The Coastal Archipelago Park of the South Coast ("Sørlandet") of Norway covers an area of the Skagerak coast between Grenland in Telemark and Lindesnes in West Agder, including many hundreds of islands and skerries. The Sørland coast is one of the most important recreation areas of Norway and hosts a unique coastal ecosystem with special habitats and a rich biodiversity. 

Year: 2016

Photographer: Peter Prokosch

Artificial downwelling

Artificial downwelling (AD) is an idea to pump upper layer water deeper down into the ocean.

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