The sociotechnical dynamics of blue carbon management: Testing typologies of ideographs, innovation, and co-impacts for marine carbon removal

Efforts to halt the precipitous decline of marine ecosystems are taking on additional importance in relation to discussions of climate change and carbon removal. Out of all biological carbon captured in the world, more than half is stored by marine living organisms, and the oceans represent the largest long-term sink for carbon. Blue carbon, the preservation and enhancement of marine and coastal ecosystems for carbon removal, is treated as a potentially cost-effective way to capture and store carbon, generate community co-benefits, and implement conservation and climate agendas. However, blue carbon ecosystems are among the most unproven climate intervention options, in part given their status as highly threatened systems which moreover have critical connections to planetary health and food security. Based on extensive place-based field research and document analysis, this study examines three blue carbon innovations: coral reef preservation in Australia, seagrass restoration in the United Kingdom, and macroalgae (seaweed) cultivation and deep ocean storage in the United States. Empirically, it utilizes an extensive, original dataset of expert interviews (N=46), site visits (N=38) and document analysis undertaken over late 2022 and 2023. Conceptually, it advances our understanding of typologies related to narratives and ideographs, innovation and technological styles, and community co-impacts. It thus offers comparative case study work across three locations and blue carbon approaches with original mixed-methods data aimed at novel theoretical triangulation across three typological frameworks.