This report, produced by University of the Highlands and Islands – Shetland (UHI Shetlands) and endorsed as an Ocean Decade Activity, presents the first assessment of sublittoral blue carbon habitats within the Shetland Islands 12 nm limit, evaluating their spatial extent, ecological characteristics, and potential contribution to carbon sequestration and long-term storage.
Blue carbon habitats – including seagrass meadows, kelp forests, brittlestar beds, horse mussel beds and maerl beds – play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, stabilising sediments, and mitigating climate change through the capture and retention of organic carbon (OC).
The study combined high-resolution spatial data with species distribution modelling (MaxEnt) to predict the extent of blue carbon habitats across Shetland’s 12 nautical mile (nm) zone. Modelled habitat distributions were developed using presence-only occurrence data and 11 environmental predictors. Validation metrics demonstrated high predictive accuracy (AUC > 0.97, TSS > 0.79), providing high confidence in the outputs.
Download the report below, and learn more about UHI Shetlands’ Exploring Shetland’s Blue Carbon Habitats project here.