What Needs to be Done? Environmental Impacts Carol Turley and Jerry Blackford Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK CCS R & D Workshop, Royal Academy of Engineering, 28 February 2008

Point escapes: -Remote sensing??? Diffuse escapes: -Carbon isotope analysis of soil gases Early Warning System: CCS Below Land (important in some countries) – Environmental Detection and Impact Spectral responses in plants Environmental impact assessment

Volume/concentration velocity Sea/air flux Flux to sea Key Questions: 1.Time and space scales, quantities of any CO 2 release, dispersion rate, zones of impact? 2.Impacts on biology and biogeochemical cycles? 3.Impacts on ecosystems? 4.Recovery rate? 5.Can we monitor and survey for change? 6.Relative environmental benefits and risks of CCS? 7.What are the economic risks, costs and benefits? 8.What are the public perception and regulatory issues? gentle catastrophic d Vol/conc Mixing & dispersion density Impact of CO 2 Release from UK Subsea CCS 6-7 Cabled observatory Moored buoy with satellite link, monitoring pH/CO2 dissolved in seawater Marine surveys

North Sea is Productive, Diverse and Economically Important Shelf seas very important for: Global productivity Biodiversity Economics Driven by benthic –pelagic coupling!

There are Numerous Species Vulnerable to High CO2

Impacts, Adaptations & Recovery Molecular Population & Community Ecosystem Biodiversity Biogeochemistry Goods & Services Organismal Cellular Time Space Scales of Impact, their Adaptation and Recovery Adaptation & Recovery From genes to ecosystems and their services

Our research to date suggests the following hypothesis: Fast dispersal and propagation, driven by mixing will limit the impact to the pelagic ecosystem. However benthic systems exposed to significant perturbation would show impacts to some functionally significant biota and recovery of these relatively longer-lived species would be slower. Hence we propose a research program that focuses (although not exclusively) on exposure, impact and recovery in benthic systems, their biodiversity and their ability to cycle carbon and key nutrients.

Key Objectives Develop fine scale dispersion models that will quantify the spatial and temporal perturbation profile for a wide range of leakage scenarios Using the model results to drive the experimental set up, run a series of experiments that will investigate responses and recovery in different sediment types and species. Investigate CO 2 injection beneath the sediments, (geological leakage and buried infrastructure), Examine the impacts of potential contaminants of CO 2 such as H 2 S and NO x Develop detailed system models to scale up and quantify whole system impact, including economic and risk assessments.

CCS Proposal Concept Marine Impacts of Leakage from Carbon Capture and Storage High resolution physical models (POL / ?) 3D medium resolution coupled Ecosystem models (PML) Complex ecosystem impact and recovery models (PML) Impact & Recovery Experiments (PML) Gas Dynamics in fluids (PML / Others) Geological leakage probability (BGS) Engineering system leakage parameters & risks (Industry, CCSC) Impact risk assessment (PML/Others) Dissemination to science and policy Contaminants (CCSC) Retention of CO2 define expts Define scenarios Leak dispersion Define probabilities Processes, params, functions Ecosystem impacts Spatial Dispersion concentrations Processes, params, functions

Monitoring for Leakage and Impact (or Long Term Retention)  PML has a 30 year history of research into biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems, in measuring ocean pH and pCO 2 and more recently assessing the impact of CO2 using our experimental facilities and ecosystem modelling  The future? A cabled under-sea long-term observatory liked to buoyed and satellite communications for:  continuous measurement  rapid detection