Abstract:Marine carbon sinking is performed by "solubility pumps" and "biological pumps" and has significant advantages related to its large carbon sequestration capacity and long-time storage characteristics. Therefore, blue carbon can effectively mitigate the greenhouse effect caused by CO2 emissions and play an irreplaceable role in combating global climate change. Fishery is the primary human activity in the ocean economy, which has an important impact on the carbon cycle in inshore waters. Fishery carbon sinking is an indispensable part of blue carbon sequestration. Marine ranching is a healthy and low-carbon fishery model that restores the habitat and conserves aquatic biological resources. Construction of marine ranching could promote the ocean's primary productivity and expand its CO2 sequestration capacity. Moreover, increasing the resources in marine ranching can improve carbon transfer efficiency among different nutrient levels in the food web, accelerating the deposition of particulate organic carbon. In marine ranching, there is no feeding behavior in fishery production, wherein photosynthesis of phytoplankton and large algae provides food for other animals. Shellfish, crustaceans, fish, and other organisms in marine ranching areas rely on plankton, benthos, and fouling organisms for nutrition. Fishing of economically important fishery resources completes the "carbon removal" in seawater, which is one of the typical models of carbon sink fisheries. Therefore, marine ranching construction is an effective new way to expand fishery carbon sink. In this study, the research status on carbon sequestration mechanisms, processes, and potential key factors of the national and international marine ranching carbon sinking was summarized based on the definition of marine ranching in China. The critical roles of seagrass bed, oyster reef, and other typical marine ranching ecosystems were analyzed concerning the inshore carbon sequestration. Fundamental research directions were suggested to further understand the carbon sequestration mechanisms and carbon cycle, and explore amplifying marine ranching technologies such as the carbon accounting method, providing support for the study of marine carbon sinking amplifications and strategies concerning carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in China.
