From biogeochemical exchange to market exchange: the impacts of blue carbon on coastal wetland science

Abstract

While there is widespread agreement that markets for ecosystem services (MES) have transformed conservation, it is less clear whether they have transformed the practice of environmental science to meet market needs for stable commodities. We examine this further through the case of blue carbon. Putting marine ecosystems on the MES agenda, blue carbon makes the case to incorporate coastal wetlands into carbon markets to finance their conservation and mitigate climate change. Using a mixed methods approach combining bibliometric and Natural Language Processing (NLP) analyses of peer-reviewed coastal wetland literature, a qualitative review of highly cited publications, and semi-structured interviews with blue carbon scientists, we argue that blue carbon has reshaped coastal wetland science: broadly toward strategic science on conservation and restoration to address global climate change, and specifically by reframing biogeochemistry to meet market demands for stable carbon commodities. Measured by number and share of papers, the blue carbon field is growing quickly and outpacing other research. Its papers are disproportionately represented among the most cited coastal wetland publications, suggesting a growth in both scientific production and authority. Our results show the emergence of blue carbon has redirected biogeochemical research on coastal wetlands from dynamic cycles and processes to stored and preserved carbon, aligning research with the stable carbon commodities needed for carbon markets. This strongly suggests that coastal wetland scientists, although skeptical of carbon offsets, are shifting their work to align with the needs of market frameworks in well-intentioned efforts to promote coastal wetland conservation. If this continues, alternatives to market-based policies are unlikely to emerge, making scientists' own doubts about their effectiveness a serious cause for concern.