Institute of Life, Earth and Environment
ILEE Lunch Seminar
- https://ilee.unamur.be/events/ilee-lunch-seminar-42
- ILEE Lunch Seminar
- 2025-05-23T00:45:00+02:00
- 2025-05-23T01:45:00+02:00
- When May 23, 2025 from 12:45 AM to 01:45 AM (Europe/Brussels / UTC200)
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Sebastiaan van de Velde University of Otago (New Zealand): Seafloor carbon sequestration: opportunities and threats
With global carbon emissions continuing to increase, the need for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies is rapidly rising. One particularly promising marine CDR technology is ocean alkalinization, where atmospheric CO2 is removed by increasing ocean alkalinity. Currently, the coastal seafloor is a natural source of alkalinity that generates ~20 Teq alkalinity yr-1 globally, equivalent to the uptake of ~730 Tg CO2 yr-1 from the atmosphere. The seafloor functions as a natural biogeochemical reactor and presents many opportunities to enhance ocean alkalinity. In contrast, several economic activities in coastal zones, such as bottom trawl fishing and dredging, can inhibit the natural functioning of the seafloor, thereby limiting natural alkalinity generation.
Here, I will present ongoing research into coastal ocean alkalinity enhancement and its interactions with natural alkalinity generation. Additionally, I will discuss the potential impact of bottom trawl fishing and continuous dredging on the natural seafloor alkalinity source.
Bio-statement
Sebastiaan van de Velde received a PhD in marine biogeochemistry from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2018. After spending 2 years at the University of California, Riverside (USA) as a postdoctoral fellow, he held a FedtWIN position at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and the Institute of Natural Science. Since 2024, Dr. van de Velde has been working as a lecturer at the University of Otago (New Zealand) and head of the carbonate chemistry facilities of NIWA. He also holds a parttime senior research position at the University of Antwerp.
Frédéric Silvestre (Biology) visited Otago University last November to meet with collaboration partners. Further cooperation is possible, supported by the partnership agreement between Otago University and UNamur and the Erasmus+ International Mobility Exchange fellowship.
