000K utf8 1100 $c2023 1500 eng 2050 urn:nbn:de:gbv:8:3-2024-00122-7 2051 10.3389/fclim.2023.1169665 3000 Hilmi, Nathalie 3010 Claudel Rusin, Astrid 3010 Elsler, Laura G. 3010 Ernst, Ekkehard 3010 Farahmand, Shekoofeh 3010 Haraldsson, Gunnar 3010 Levin, Lisa A. 3010 Sutherland, Michael 3010 van Doorn, Erik 3010 Wisz, Mary S. 4000 Deep sea nature-based solutions to climate change$hFrontiers Media SA [Hilmi, Nathalie] 4030 $nFrontiers Media SA 4209 The deep sea (below 200 m depth) is the largest carbon sink on Earth. It hosts abundant biodiversity that underpins the carbon cycle and provides provisioning, supporting, regulating and cultural ecosystem services. There is growing attention to climate-regulating ocean ecosystem services from the scientific, business and political sectors. In this essay we synthesize the unique biophysical, socioeconomic and governance characteristics of the deep sea to critically assess opportunities for deep-sea blue carbon to mitigate climate change. Deep-sea blue carbon consists of carbon fluxes and storage including carbon transferred from the atmosphere by the inorganic and organic carbon pumps to deep water, carbon sequestered in the skeletons and bodies of deep-sea organisms, carbon buried within sediments or captured in carbonate rock. However, mitigating climate change through deep-sea blue carbon enhancement suffers from lack of scientific knowledge and verification, technological limitations, potential environmental impacts, a lack of cooperation and collaboration, and underdeveloped governance. Together, these issues suggest that deep-sea climate change mitigation is limited. Thus, we suggest that a strong focus on blue carbon is too limited a framework for managing the deep sea to contribute to international goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement and the post-2020 Biodiversity Goals. Instead, the deep sea can be viewed as a more holistic nature-based solution, including many ecosystem services and biodiversity in addition to climate. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs), area-based management, pollution reduction, moratoria, carbon accounting and fisheries management are tools in international treaties that could help realize benefits from deep-sea, nature-based solutions. 4950 https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2023.1169665$xR$3Volltext$534 4950 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:8:3-2024-00122-7$xR$3Volltext$534 4961 https://macau.uni-kiel.de/receive/macau_mods_00004403 5051 333.7 5051 340 5550 blue carbon 5550 climate change 5550 deep sea 5550 ecosystem services 5550 nature-based solutions