What evidence exists on the impacts of human activities on biodiversity and carbon capacity in North-East Atlantic blue carbon ecosystems: a systematic map protocol.

backgroundCoastal ecosystems, including seagrass meadows, saltmarshes, and macroalgae, are crucial in the sequestration and storage of organic carbon. These ecosystems provide essential ecosystem services, such as supporting biodiversity, coastal protection, and water quality enhancement. Despite their significance, they face substantial threats from human activities, including pollution, habitat degradation, and overexploitation, further exacerbated by climate change phenomena like heatwaves and ocean acidification. Efforts to protect, restore, or alleviate pressures on blue carbon ecosystems can yield multifaceted benefits beyond climate mitigation, including preserving biodiversity, enhancing climate resilience, and safeguarding vital services for human well-being. Understanding the factors affecting the biodiversity and carbon capacity i.e. the capacity for carbon uptake, storage and sequestration, of these ecosystems is crucial for effective conservation efforts. The goal of the present study is to assess the available quantitative and qualitative evidence on the impacts of human activities on the biodiversity and carbon storage capacity of blue carbon ecosystems in the North-East Atlantic. Developing a systematic map of the available evidence could significantly enhance our understanding of the pressures faced by blue carbon ecosystems in the North-East Atlantic and facilitate the identification of knowledge clusters and gaps thereby determining the scope and depth of the current knowledge base.

methodsA systematic map on existing evidence of human impacts on the biodiversity and carbon capacity of blue carbon ecosystems in the North-East Atlantic will be conducted using relevant bibliographic databases and a web-based search engine. All searches will be conducted in English and will gather peer reviewed publications from 1980 to 2024. The resulting literature will be screened by two independent screeners at the level of title and abstract followed by full text against a set of eligibility criteria (i.e. population, intervention, outcome, study type). Metadata will be extracted from studies that meet the eligibility criteria and summarize with heatmaps, bar plots, geographic distribution maps, and tabular summaries.