Marine sediments in coastal and shelf habitats play a prominent role in the global carbon cycle, while being subjected to increasing impacts of anthropogenic seabed-disturbing activities including energy infrastructure, trawling, dredging and mining. Many impacts are understudied and poorly constrained in models. Consequently, it is currently unclear to what extent intertidal or subtidal sediments might function as a natural climate solution compared to coastal Blue Carbon ecosystems, and how management of these habitats could contribute to avoided emissions and enhanced CO₂ removal. Effective management will need to consider impacts from human activities and spatial planning for different uses, and interactions under climate change. Filling these knowledge gaps rapidly is of great importance given the current climate crisis.

In this multidisciplinary session we invite experimental, observational and modelling studies that investigate changes to organic carbon storage and burial, sediments and biology throughout activity life cycles. Such changes might be caused directly through seafloor disturbance, or indirectly by changing the carbon supply, physical nature or ecosystem functions. We encourage contributions which examine the influence of different protection and management strategies to resolve interactions between human activities and climate change effects on organic carbon in coastal and shelf systems.

• Carbon Management -
• Human-Ocean Connections -
• Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry -