“Underwater meadows are a major carbon sink that can do a great deal to mitigate climate change”

Awarded the 12th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology, Carlos Duarte explains in this interview how the oceans and their ecosystems function as a key regulator of the global climate and as a support for marine biodiversity. Based on his research in seagrass beds, reefs, and coastal zones, he explains the importance of these habitats for the carbon cycle and resilience to climate change. His perspective combines scientific rigor with an urgent need to conserve and restore the ocean systems that sustain life on the planet.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology has gone in this twelfth edition to marine biologists Carlos Duarte, Terence Hughes and Daniel Pauly for “their seminal contributions to our understanding of the world’s oceans, and their efforts to protect and conserve marine biodiversity and oceanic ecosystem services in a rapidly changing world,” in the words of the award citation.